Design and cold model experiment of a continuous-wave deuteron radio-frequency quadrupole

Abstract

A deuteron radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) is being built by the RFQ group at Peking University. It is a very compact high-current RFQ, operating at 162.5 MHz in continuous-wave mode. By optimizing the beam dynamics design, our simulations reached 98% transmission efficiency for acceleration of the 50-mA deuteron beam from 50 keV to 1 MeV, with an intervane voltage of 60 kV and a length of 1.809 m. This RFQ adopts a window-type structure, with low power consumption and sufficient mode separation, with no stabilizing rods required. Its magnetic coupling windows have been optimized by both electromagnetic simulation and the construction of an equivalent circuit model. The empirical equation based on the circuit model provides a new way to evaluate the effect of the window size on the frequency. In addition, an aluminum model of the full-length RFQ has been built and tested, and the results show good agreement with the simulations. During the tuning process, the magnetic coupling effect between quadrants was found to be unique to the window-type RFQ. We also propose a method to estimate the effects of different degrees of electric field unflatness on the beam transmission. For the cooling system design, the results of thermostructural analysis, verified by comparing results from ansys and cst, show that the special cooling channels provide a high cooling efficiency around the magnetic coupling windows. The maximal deformation of the structure was approximately 75 μm. The beam-loading effect caused by a high current, and the coupler design, are also discussed.