The acceleration of proton, light-ion, and heavy-ion beams are important for many scientific, medical, industrial, and defense applications. Developments that reduce the size, cost, and complexity of these accelerator systems would be welcome. The weakest link in most accelerator systems is the low energy end, where the disruptive effects of acceleration are the greatest and the focusing forces are weakest. This project will develop an rf-focused linac structure that promises significant size, efficiency, performance, and cost advantages over existing linac structures for the acceleration of low energy light and heavy ions. The cavity configuration will yield modest sized structures, even for the low rf frequencies that are required for most heavy ion applications. Phase I will develop a basic understanding of the new rf-focused linac structure, optimize its performance and geometry as a function of particle velocity, develop methods for economical fabrication of the structure, identify significant applications, and estimate the size, cost, and performance of the structures for these applications. The fabrication of an operating prototype will be conducted in Phase II.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The scientific applications for the new type of accelerator include basic particle physics, muon acceleration, and rare isotope acceleration. The medical, industrial, and defense applications include radioisotope production, thermal neutron beam production, ion implantation, and explosive and mine detection
