Multiple Charge State Beam Acceleration at Atlas

TL;DR

This paper reports on the successful acceleration of multiple charge-state uranium beams at the ATLAS facility, demonstrating high efficiency and detailed characterization of each charge state's properties compared to simulations.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental demonstration of accelerating multiple charge states of uranium beams at ATLAS with detailed measurements and comparison to simulations.

Findings

Up to 94% of the beam was accelerated through the Booster linac.

Losses were mainly in the lower charge states.

Measured beam properties closely matched numerical simulations.

Abstract

A test of the acceleration of multiple charge-state uranium beams was performed at the ATLAS accelerator. A 238U+26 beam was accelerated in the ATLAS PII linac to 286 MeV (~1.2 MeV/u) and stripped in a carbon foil located 0.5 m from the entrance of the ATLAS Booster section. A 58Ni9+ 'guide' beam from the tandem injector was used to tune the Booster for 238U+38. All charge states from the stripping were injected into the booster and accelerated. Up to 94% of the beam was accelerated through the Booster linac, with losses mostly in the lower charge states. The measured beam properties of each charge state and a comparison to numerical simulations are reported in this paper.