EXTENSION OF SUPERCONDUCTING LINAC OPERATION TO LIGHTER BEAMS

The Pelletron LINAC Facility, Mumbai is a major centre for heavy ion accelerator based research in India. The superconducting linear accelerator, indigenously developed to boost the energy of heavy ion beams delivered by the Pelletron accelerator, has been operational since July, 2007. The Liquid Helium Refrigeration plant for the LINAC has been upgraded to enhance the refrigeration capacity to ~450 Watts at 4.5K without LN2 pre-cool, from the earlier capacity of ~300 Watts. All beam lines in new user halls have been commissioned and new experimental setups have been added. Several experiments have been carried out using beams of 12 C, 16 O, 19 F, 28 Si, 31 P. The superconducting lead on Copper QWR cavity used in the LINAC is designed for =0.1 and hence it is difficult to accelerate lighter beams. Due to growing interest in studying Li induced reactions on fissile targets at energies higher than 55 MeV, we have recently accelerated 7 Li beam using four cryostat modules. Starting with 40 MeV 7 Li beam from the Pelletron, 56 MeV beam was successfully delivered at target station for a test experiment.