BEAM DYNAMICS OPTIMIZATION OF THE TRIUMF ELINAC INJECTOR

TRIUMF proposes a half megawatt electron linac (elinac) for radioactive ion beam production via photofission. The e-linac is to operate CW using 1.3 GHz superconducting (SC) technology. The accelerator layout consists of a 100 keV thermionic gun, a normal conducting buncher, an injector module, and main linac modules accelerating to a final energy of 50 MeV. The design beam current is 10 mA. The beam dynamics of the injector, where electrons make the transition to the fully relativistic state, has been identified as the most critical part of the design and is the subject of simulations (starting at the gun cathode) using realistic EM fields in ASTRA, PARMELA and TRACK. CW operation demands the novel choice of adopting an SC capture section. A preliminary design of the injector foresees a capture section composed either of two independent or two coupled single-cell cavities, 1, that increase the energy to about 500 keV, followed by one nine-cell cavity that boosts the energy up to 10 MeV. The design parameters are subjected to a global optimization program. In this paper we present results from the beam dynamics study as well as details and final outcome of the optimization process.