An experimental program for collective acceleration of ions using intense relativistic electron beams

A program of collective ion acceleration using intense relativistic electron beam (IREB) of 0.25-1MeV, 6-80kA, 60ns on the Kilo Ampere Linear Injector (KALI) systems to accelerate light and heavy ions to high energies approaching GeV with currents over tens of amperes, is envisaged in this report. The accelerator will make use of the intense space-charge field of electron beam in vacuum for accelerating ions which are injected into it. For ion injection, various alternatives, such as, localized gas puff, dielectric insert, laser plasma, etc. have been considered as present and long-term objectives. Among the variety of diagnostic methods chosen for characterizing the accelerated ions include range-energy in foil, CR-39 track detector, nuclear activation technique and time-of-flight for energy and species determination; ion Faraday cup for current measurement; and Thomson parabola analyzer for determining the post-acceleration charge-state. In the proposed MAHAKALI collective accelerator, protons of energy over 10 MeV and higher charge state metal ions around a GeV are predicted using a REB of 1MeV, 30kA, 60ns from KALI-5000. In present experiments using KALI-200 with REB parameters of 250keV, 60kA, 80ns, protons over a MeV and carbon and fluorine ions respectively for 12MeV and 16MeV in significant currents have been accelerated. (author). 35 refs., figs., tabs