Development of the world's first RFQ heavy ion linac (LITL)

The RFQ-type heavy ion linac, called LITL, was developed at the Institute for Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo, as the first trial in the world. The proton model to prove the RFQ principle was developed at LANL in 1980, but there is still no operating machine which handles not only heavy ions but also protons. The first acceleration test was performed successfully on July 28, 1982. This machine can provide various ion beams from hydrogen to argon of 138 keV per nucleon in energy. The maximum intensity for Li is about 10 mA. The new machine should be very useful for various applications as well as basic studies. This development showed that the RFQ is really the missing link in linear accelerator technology. (author)