Alternating phase focusing beam dynamics for drift tube linacs

Abstract In contrast to conventional E-mode resonance accelerators, H-mode DTLs provide for compact linac sections and have been established as highly efficient resonators during the last decades. Thus, H-mode structures are widely applied for heavy-ion acceleration with medium beam energies because of their outstanding capability to provide high acceleration gradients with relatively low energy consumption. To build upon those advantages, an alternating phase focusing beam dynamics layout has been applied to provide for a resonance accelerator design without internal lenses, which allows for eased commissioning, routine operation, maintenance, and potential future upgrades. The features of such a channel are going to be demonstrated on the example of two interdigital H-mode cavities, separated by an external quadrupole triplet. This setup provides for heavy ion (mass-to-charge ratio A/z 6 A / z ≤ 6) acceleration from 300 keV/u to 1400 keV/u and is used as an injector part of the superconducting continuous wave accelerator HELIAC. Hence, this promising approach generally enables effective and compact routine operation for various applications, such as super heavy ion research, material science, and radio biological applications such as heavy-ion tumor therapy.