CW particle accelerator with low particle injection velocity

• US 5,744,919 A
• Filed: 12/12/1996
• Issued: 04/28/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Accuray Incorporated
• Original Assignee: American Science and Engineering Incorporated (OSI Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Schonberg, Russell G., Mishin, Andrey V.
• Primary Examiner(s): O'Shea, Sandra L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patidar, Jay M.
• Application Number:
  US08/764,535
• Time in Patent Office: 502 Days
• Field of Search: 313/505, 313/500, 313/5.41, 313/5.42, 313/5.46, 313/5.47
• US Class Current: 315/505
• CPC Class Codes: H05H 9/00 Linear accelerators

Abstract

An RF linear accelerator using CW or low amplitude pulsed RF excitation which can efficiently accelerate charged particles from 0.1 C to relativistic velocities in excess of 0.9 C. A charged particle source feeds charged particles having velocities of about 0.1 C into a first type RF LINAC having a plurality of side coupled resonator cavities each having a drift tube in the middle. The RF length of the cavities is set relative to the velocity of the particles and the RF excitation wavelength such that the particles experience in-phase accelerating E fields in the gaps on either side of the drift tube and are shielded from decelerating E fields while inside the drift tubes. The RF coupling cavities establish sufficient phase change between adjacent resonators such that the particles arrive in the adjacent resonator cavities in synchronization with oscillations in the standing wave therein so as to experience further acceleration. The first RF LINAC accelerates the particles to 0.5 C approximately. The charged particles are then passed through a conventional RF LINAC with a CW source which is optimized to accelerate the particles from 0.5 C to relativistic velocities. A variable phase change RF coupler couples the RF between the first RF LINAC and the second RF LINAC such that a variable degree of synchronization can be achieved such that the energy of the particle beam exiting said second RF LINAC can be modulated by varying the phase change. A conventional CW RF LINAC is also disclosed with a duty cycle controlling system for operating the RF and charged particle sources with variable duty cycles so as to achieve control of average beam power and enable higher momentary beam energies than would otherwise be the case for CW LINACs.

Claims

1. An RF linear accelerator comprising:

a charged particle source supplying charged particles having velocities substantially lower than the minimum particle injection velocity needed for efficient acceleration in a conventional RF linear accelerator which does not use drift tubes;

a first RF linear accelerator having one or more resonator cavities each with a drift tube therein coupled to receive charged particles from said charged particle source and structured to accelerate them from whatever velocity they arrived to a minimum velocity needed for efficient acceleration in an RF linear accelerator that does not use drift tubes;

a second RF linear accelerator which has one or more resonator cavities which do not employ drift tubes, said second RF accelerator coupled to receive charged particles output from said first RF linear accelerator said second RF linear accelerator structured for accelerating said charged particles arriving from said first RF linear accelerator up to a relativistic velocity;

an RF source of microwave energy coupled to said first and second RF linear accelerators so as to excite therein the TM₀₁₀ mode; and

a coupling structure coupling said TM₀₁₀ RF energy in said first linear accelerator to said second linear accelerator in such a way as to cause a phase change such that charged particles arriving from said first RF linear accelerator arrive at a first resonator cavity of said second RF linear accelerator at a time when the electric field of said TM₀₁₀ mode in said first resonator cavity of said second RF linear accelerator is oriented in such a way as to accelerate said charged particles.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein coupling cavities are used to couple RF energy between adjacent resonator cavities in each of said first and second linear accelerators.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said coupling cavities are not on the axis of the accelerated particle beam so as to increase the RF path length but not appreciably increase the particle beam path length through the first and second accelerators.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said charged particle source is structured to supply charged particles at approximately 0.1 C and wherein said first and second RF linear accelerators and said coupling structure are configured to accelerate said charged particles from approximately 0.1 C to relativistic velocities near the velocity of light in a vacuum.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said resonator cavities in said first RF linear accelerator are sized relative to the size of the drift tube and the average velocity of charged particles in said accelerator cavity and the wavelength of the signal generated by said RF source such that the electric fields of said TM₀₁₀ mode oscillate in phase in the gaps on either side of said drift tube with phase shift θ

, equal to 2Π

n, where n is an integer.

6. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said coupling cavities of said first linear accelerator are located such that said first linear accelerator is on-axis coupled and wherein said resonator cavities and said coupling cavities in said first linear accelerator define a periodic structure having a period L for each resonator cavity/coupling cavity/combination equal to:

##EQU4## where β

is the average velocity of charged particles in meters per second in a particular resonator cavity relative to the velocity of light in a vacuum, and λ

_O is the wavelength in free space in meters of the signal generated by said RF source and wherein the length D of each drift tube in a resonator cavity is;

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">D=(0.5±

0.15)β

λ

.sub.O

where

β and

λ

_O are as defined above.

7. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said coupling cavities of said first linear accelerator are located such that said first linear accelerator is off-axis coupled and wherein said resonator cavities and said coupling cavities in said first linear accelerator define a periodic structure having a period L where L is the length of the resonator cavity in the off-axis coupled first linear accelerator and is equal to:

##EQU5## where β

is the average velocity of charged particles in meters per second in a particular resonator cavity relative to the velocity of light in a vacuum, and λ

_O is the wavelength in free space in meters of the signal generated by said RF source and wherein the length D of each drift tube in a resonator cavity is;

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">D=(0.5±

0.15)β

λ

.sub.O

where

β and

λ

_O are as defined above for the length L of the resonator cavity.

8. An RF linear accelerator comprising:

a charged particle source;

a first RF linear accelerator section structured to accelerate charged particles for velocities of approximately 0.1 C to 0.5 C using a CW or low amplitude pulsed RF source and drift tubes;

a second RF linear accelerator section structured to accelerate charged particles received from said first RF linear accelerator from velocities of approximately 0.5 C up to relativistic velocities of 0.9 C and above using a CW or low amplitude pulsed RF source;

a CW or low amplitude RF source coupled to both said first and second RF liner accelerators to generate microwave signals which excite a TM₀₁₀ standing wave in said first and second linear accelerators; and

a coupling structure to couple said TM₀₁₀ standing wave energy from said first to said second linear accelerator so as to cause sufficient phase change seen by charged particles entering said second RF linear accelerator from said first RF linear accelerator so as to cause further acceleration of said charged particles in said second RF linear accelerator.

9. An RF linear accelerator comprising:

means for supplying charged particles having a velocity of approximately 0.1 C;

first means for receiving said charged particles and accelerating them from their velocity of arrival to a velocity of about 0.5 C using;

a CW or low pulse amplitude RF source

second means for receiving charged particles accelerated by said first means and accelerating them from whatever velocity they arrived from said first means to relativistic velocities near the velocity of light using a CW or low pulse amplitude RF source; and

means for supplying CW or low pulse amplitude RF energy to said first and second means.

10. An RF linear accelerator comprising:

a source of charged particles having a velocity which is too low for RF accelerators without drift tubes and CW RF sources to accelerate;

a first RF LINAC coupled to receive said charged particles and having a structure including drift tubes configured so as to accelerate said particles from the velocity at which they arrive up to a velocity at which they can be accelerated by RF LINACs having no drift tubes and CW or low pulse amplitude RF sources;

a second RF LINAC coupled to receive accelerated charged particles from said first RF LINAC and structured so as to accelerate said charged particles from whatever velocity at which they arrive up to relativistic velocities;

an RF source of either a CW or low pulse amplitude design;

a power splitter coupling a portion of the RF power from said RF power source to each of said first and second RF LINACs to excite a standing wave therein and for providing a relative phase shift between the output of said first RF linear

accelerator and the input of said second RF linear accelerator so as to maintain synchronization.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said power splitter is structured to provide a variable power ratio of the RF power supplied to said first and second RF LINACs, respectively.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said power splitter is structured to provide a variable relative phase shift between the output of said first RF LINAC and the input of said second RF LINAC.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said power splitter is structured to provide a fixed amount of phase shift between the output of said first RF LINAC and the input of said second RF LINAC but to control the relative amplitude of RF excitation energy supplied to each of said first and second RF LINACs.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said power splitter includes a power regulator configured to provide a variable, regulated amount of power to at least said second RF LINAC so as to control the amount of acceleration occurring therein.

15. A process for accelerating charged particles comprising:

providing charged particles having a velocity which is too low to accelerate in RF LINAC resonators without drift tubes using a CW RF source;

passing said charged particles through a CW standing wave pattern in one or more first type resonator cavities each having a drift tube therein and coupled by RF coupling cavities such that said charged particles are, in each first type resonator cavity, subjected to accelerating electric fields in the gaps on either side of each drift tube and shielded from decelerating electric fields while travelling through said drift tubes;

passing said charged particles through a CW standing wave in one or more second type resonator cavities without drift tubes and RF coupled by coupling cavities such that said charged particles arrive at an input of the first of said second type resonator cavities in predetermined degree of synchronization with oscillations of said standing wave such that said charged particles are accelerated to relativistic velocities.

16. The process of claim 15 wherein the degree of synchronization of arrival of said charged particles with the time of maximum acceleration in the first of said second type of resonator cavities can be varied by coupling RF excitation energy between said first and second type resonator cavities through a coupling device that provides a variable amount of relative phase shift between the standing wave in the first type resonator cavities and the standing wave in the second type resonator cavities.

17. An RF linear accelerator comprising:

a charged particle source supplying charged particles having velocities substantially lower than the minimum particle injection velocity needed for efficient acceleration in a conventional RF linear accelerator which does not use drift tubes;

a first RF linear accelerator having one or more resonator cavities each with a drift tube therein coupled to receive charged particles from said charged particle source and structured to accelerate them from whatever velocity they arrived to a minimum velocity needed for efficient acceleration in an RF linear accelerator that does not use drift tubes;

a second RF linear accelerator which has one or more resonator cavities which do not employ drift tubes, said second RF accelerator coupled to receive charged particles output from said first RF linear accelerator, said second RF linear accelerator structured for accelerating said charged particles arriving from said first RF linear accelerator up to a relativistic velocity;

a CW RF source of microwave excitation energy in the form of an RF waveform coupled to said first and second RF linear accelerators so as to excite therein the TM₀₁₀ mode; and

a coupling structure coupling said TM₀₁₀ RF energy in said first RF linear accelerator to said second RF linear accelerator in such a way as to cause a phase change such that charged particles arriving from said first RF linear accelerator arrive at a first resonator cavity of said second RF linear accelerator at a time when the electric field of said TM₀₁₀ mode in said first resonator cavity of said second RF linear accelerator is oriented in such a way as to accelerate or decelerate said charged particles at the choice of the operator; and

switching means for enabling and disabling said CW RF source and said charged particle source so as to control the duty cycle of each so as to facilitate control of average output beam power by varying said duty cycles.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein coupling cavities are used to couple RF energy between adjacent resonator cavities in each of said first and second RF linear accelerators.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein said coupling cavities are not on the axis of the accelerated particle beam so as to increase the RF path length but not appreciably increase the particle beam path length through the first and second accelerators.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said charged particle source is structured to supply charged particles at approximately 0.1 C and wherein said first and second RF linear accelerators and said coupling structure are configured to accelerate said charged particles from approximately 0.1 C to relativistic velocities near the velocity of light in a vacuum.

21. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said resonator cavities in said first RF linear accelerator are sized relative to the size of the drift tube and the average velocity of charged particles in said accelerator cavity and the wavelength of the signal generated by said RF source such that the electric fields of said TM₀₁₀ mode oscillate in phase in the gaps on either side of said drift tube with phase shift θ

, equal to 2Π

n, where n is an integer.

22. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein said resonator cavities and said coupling cavities in said first linear accelerator define a periodic structure having a period L for each resonator cavity/coupling cavity/combination equal to:

##EQU6## where β

is the average velocity of charged particles in meters per second in a particular resonator cavity relative to the velocity of light in a vacuum, and λ

_O is the wavelength in free space in meters of the signal generated by said RF source and wherein the length D of each drift tube in a resonator cavity is;

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">D=(0.5±

0.15)β

λ

.sub.O

where

β and

λ

_O are as defined above.

23. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said coupling structure comprises means for controlling the phase change between said first and second RF linear accelerators and the relative amplitude of the RF waveform excitation energy supplied to said second RF linear accelerator relative to said first RF linear accelerator.

24. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein said coupling cavities of said first linear accelerator are located such that said first linear accelerator is off-axis coupled and wherein said resonator cavities and said coupling cavities in said first linear accelerator define a periodic structure having a period L where L is the length of the resonator cavity in the off-axis coupled first linear accelerator and is equal to:

##EQU7## where β

is the average velocity of charged particles in meters per second in a particular resonator cavity relative to the velocity of light in a vacuum, and λ

_O is the wavelength in free space in meters of the signal generated by said RF source and wherein the length D of each drift tube in a resonator cavity is;

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">D=(0.5±

0.15)β

λ

.sub.O

where

β and

λ

_O are as defined above for the length L of the resonator cavity.

25. An apparatus comprising:

an RF linear accelerator structure;

a CW RF source coupled to said RF linear accelerator so as to supply RF energy thereto when said CW RF source is enabled;

a charged particle source coupled to supply charged particles to said RF linear accelerator when said charged particle source is enabled;

a first switch coupled to enable or disable said CW RF source;

a second switch coupled to enable or disable said charged particle source; and

a beam energy/power controller coupled to said first and second switches so as to control the duty cycles for enabling and disabling of said CW RF source and said charged particle source so as to achieve a desired average output beam power from said RF linear accelerator.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 further comprising a cooling system coupled to at least said RF LINAC, said cooling system having a rated power dissipation capability, and wherein said CW RF source includes a high voltage supply which is capable of supplying a variable high voltage for use by said CW RF source in generating said RF energy the magnitude of said variable high voltage which is generated being responsive to a beam energy control signal, and wherein said beam energy/power controller also generates said beam energy control signal so as to cause the amplitude of said variable high voltage to be altered so as to achieve a desired beam energy for said output beam, and wherein said beam energy/power controller also alters said duty cycles of said CW RF source and said charged particle source when the magnitude of said variable high voltage is altered so as to achieve an average output beam power from said RF linear accelerator which is within said rated power dissipation capability of said cooling system.