Microwave inverse Cerenkov accelerator

A Microwave Inverse Cerenkov Accelerator (MICA) is currently under construction at the Yale Beam Physics Laboratory. The accelerating structure in MICA consists of an axisymmetric dielectrically lined waveguide. For the injection of 6 MeV microbunches from a 2.856 GHz RF gun, and subsequent acceleration by the TM01 fields, particle simulation studies predict that an acceleration gradient of 6.3 MV/m can be achieved with a traveling-wave power of 15 MW applied to the structure. Synchronous injection into a narrow phase window is shown to allow trapping of all injected particles. The RF fields of the accelerating structure are shown to provide radial focusing, so that longitudinal and transverse emittance growth during acceleration is small, and that no external magnetic fields are required for focusing. For 0.16 nC, 5 psec microbunches, the normalized emittance of the accelerated beam is predicted to be less than 5πmm-mrad. Experiments on sample alumina tubes have been conducted that verify the theoretical dispersion relation for the TM01 mode over a two-to-one range in frequency. No excitation of axisymmetric or non-axisymmetric competing waveguide modes was observed. High power tests showed that tangential electric fields at the inner surface of an uncoated sample of alumina pipe could be sustained up to at least 8.4 MV/m without breakdown. These considerations suggest that a MICA test accelerator can be built to examine these predictions using an available RF power source, 6 MeV RF gun and associated beam line. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics