Mechanical design and fabrication of a 425-MHz H- buncher

A beam buncher has been designed, fabricated, and installed on the accelerator test stand (ATS) to match the 2-MeV output beam of a 425-MHz H- radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) into a 425-MHz drift-tube linac (DTL). The buncher configuration provides integral-matching permanent-magnet quadrupoles (PMQ) at the exit of the RFQ and one βλ across the buncher accelerating gap; a third PMQ is the first DTL half-cell magnet. Located between the second and third PMQs is a 50-Ω, capacitively coupled, beam-sensing pickup loop. Cooling channels are provided in each of the brazed OFHC copper wall sections. Vacuum pumping of the buncher is provided by a cryogenic refrigerator vacuum pump through an array of small-diameter holes in the buncher cavity wall. Mechanical features of the buncher, the brazing and electron-beam welding of the solid-copper buncher structure, and the beam pickup loop are described in this paper. The buncher has been tuned, installed, and operated at full power on the ATS