Design study for a high-current, steady-state autoresonant accelerator. Final report, July 14-November 14, 1979

During the past year and a half, both theoretical and engineering investigations have been carried forward in a research program to assess the feasibility, and provide conceptual designs and engineering design studies for high current, steady state Auto-Resonant Accelerators. The behavior of each of the various components of an Auto-Resonant Accelerator has been carefully examined for the case of moderately relativistic electron energy and high electron current which will be appropriate for steady state operation. In general, a very considerable amount of progress has been achieved on the front-end components of the accelerator, with design options narrowed significantly and preliminary design parameters even determined for the power supplies, the electron beam source, the radiation shielding, the convergent Pierce gun diode, and the electron cyclotron wave exciter. For the downstream accelerator components consisting of the gas cell and electrode structures which are used to generate and load the ions into the cyclotron wave and to eliminate secondary electrons, conceptual designs have been realized; however, some further work remains to be done before an optimized engineering design of these components can be constructed for a first experimental test of a steady state Auto-Resonant Accelerator