High frequency compact low-energy linear accelerator design

Abstract

The invention provides a compact radio-frequency quadrupole 'RFQ' accelerator for accelerating charged particles, wherein the RFQ accelerator comprises: a bunching section configured to have a narrow radio-frequency 'rf' acceptance such that only a portion of a particle beam incident on the bunching section is captured, and wherein the bunching section bunches the portion of the particle beam; an accelerating section for accelerating the bunched portion of the particle beam to an output energy; and, a means for supplying radio-frequency power.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure relates generally to the field of particle accelerators, and more particularly to linear accelerators that utilize radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) cavities to bunch, focus and accelerate charged particles. Background technique [0002] The RF quadrupole linac design was first conceived in the 1970s and initially presented as the "missing link" for high power beams. The early design of the RFQ allowed efficient preparation of high-intensity, low-energy hadron beams for acceleration in drift tube linear accelerators (DTLs), increasing the transfer efficiency between the source and the DTL accelerator from 50% to over 90%. [0003] A typical RFQ accelerator is configured to focus, bunch and accelerate a continuous beam of charged particles with high efficiency while maintaining emissivity. The beamforming of the RFQ is usually performed adiabatically over several units in order to ensure maximum beam trapping. Existing RFQ design...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, higher energies generally require longer RFQs; and this may make using RFQs impractical in settings such as hospitals

For example, IPHIRFQ can achieve 5MeV energy output, but at lengths longer than 6 meters, this may be too large to be practical

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