THE SARAF CW 40 MEV PROTON/DEUTERON ACCELERATOR

The Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility, SARAF, is currently under construction at Soreq NRC. SARAF is based on a continuous wave (CW), proton/deuteron RF superconducting linear accelerator with variable energy (5–40 MeV) and current (0.04-2 mA). Phase I of SARAF consists of a 20 keV/u ECR ion source, a low energy beam transport section, a 4-rod RFQ, a medium energy (1.5 MeV/u) transport section, a superconducting module housing 6 half-wave resonators and 3 superconducting solenoids, a diagnostic plate and a beam dump. Phase II will include 5 additional superconducting modules. The RFQ is in routine operation with protons since 2008 and has been further operated with molecular hydrogen and deuterons at low duty cycle. RF conditioning of the RFQ to enable deuteron CW acceleration is on going. The RF fields and dynamic cryogenic losses of the superconducting module have been measured with a VCO and the phase and amplitude stability at high fields has been measured with the SARAF LLRF system. Furthermore, proton and deuteron beams have been accelerated through the superconducting module. These were the first ever ion beams to be accelerated through half-wave resonators. Recent SARAF Phase I commissioning results are presented.