Field tuning and rf measurements of the four-vane radio frequency quadrupole with ramped inter-vane voltage

Abstract

This paper describes the physical design, rf measurement, and tuning result of a 325 MHz four-vane radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) with a ramped inter-vane voltage. The 3-meter-long RFQ will accelerate the negative hydrogen ion beam from 50 keV to 3 MeV with a peak current of 5 mA, a pulse width of 10–40 μs, and a maximum repetition rate of 0.5 Hz. During tuning we reveal that the coupling loop of the coaxial coupler adopted for this RFQ enhances the interference between the dipole field distribution and the coupling coefficient. Therefore, an iteration method is adopted to simultaneously achieve the desired field distribution and coupling coefficient. After tuning, the relative error between the measured field distribution and the designed curve for the operating quadrupole mode is within ±2.7%, and the dipole components are about ±1.9% of the quadrupole mode. The measured coupling coefficient of the rf power coupler equals 1.03, with the desired value of 1.04.