Accel–decel extraction system for PIG sources

Increasing the brightness of the ion beam is a typical demand for any accelerator. In order to fill the heavy ion synchrotron (SIS) up to the space charge limit, higher pulse currents are necessary. The UNILAC is operated with a pulse length up to 6 ms and a repetition rate up to 50 s−1. For the injection into the SIS a pulse length of 300 μs at 0.3 s−1 is required. The transverse acceptance of the RFQ is 138 π mm mrad. According to Child’s law, the ion current density which can be extracted from a plasma source is for the space charge limited flow proportional to Φ1.5/d2. With Φ and d denoting the extraction voltage and the width of the extraction gap. One approach to generate higher ion currents is to increase the extraction voltage in the regularly used extraction system. However, the required beam velocity is fixed by the RFQ structure with 2.2 keV/u. The mass-to-charge ratio which is to be accelerated can be between 1 and 65, resulting in a total voltage drop from 2.2 up to 143 kV (extraction and pos...