Advanced Beam Matching to a High Current RFQ

The High Current Injector (HSI) of the heavy ion linac UNILAC at GSI comprises the transport lines, the RFQ and two DTL tanks. Beam matching to the RFQ acceptance with a magnetic quadrupole quartet has been worked out manually during commissioning and operation of the machine. Due to a strong overlapping of the field from neighbouring quadrupole lenses, a standard optics calculation does not provide for the required reliability. Advanced beam dynamics simulations have been done with the macroparticle code DYNAMION. The superposition of the measured magnetic fields of each quadrupole was taken into account. The quadrupole settings were optimized using the Monte-Carlo method. Two solutions have been found in accordance with the general theory of particle optics. Beam dynamics simulations with new quadrupole settings show an increased particle transmission through the RFQ. The results of numerical study have been confirmed during experimental campaigns. An improved performance of the whole HSI has been demonstrated. The proposed algorithm and a comparison of the measured data with result of simulations are presented.