A study of a test APF-IH type linac as an injector for cancer therapy

Abstract We are studying a heavy-ion interdigital H (IH) type linear accelerator as an injector for a cancer therapy synchrotron. The compact IH linac accelerates C 4+ ions from 65 keV/u up to 6 MeV/u with an alternating phase focus (APF) structure. The linac cavity is 3.1 m in length and operates at a frequency of 100 MHz. A test APF-IH linac was designed to accelerate C 4+ ions from 40 keV/u to 2 MeV/u with an operating frequency of 100 MHz. From particle orbit calculations, using an energy width of ±0.2%, this linac can accept a transverse emittance of 100 π mm mrad, a longitudinal phase of 35° and a beam intensity of several 100 μA. The test cavity has 1.4 m in length and 56 cm in diameter. We made a basic, half-scale model cavity of this linac and plan to measure its RF characteristics. Using the results of these measurements, a final design of this linac will be determined.