Application of rf superconductivity to high-brightness and high-gradient ion beam accelerators

A development program is underway to apply rf superconductivity to the design of continuous-wave (cw) linear accelerators for high-brightness ion beams. Considerable progress has been made both experimentally and theoretically toward this application. Recent tests of niobium resonators for ion acceleration have yielded average accelerating gradients as high as 18 MV/m. In an experiment with a radio-frequency quadrupole geometry, niobium was found to sustain cw peak surface electric fields as high as 128 MV/m over large (10 cm2) surface areas. Theoretical studies of beam impingement and cumulative beam breakup have also yielded encouraging results. The authors made extensive measurements of the rf properties of high-Tc superconductors. In this paper, the authors summarize their progress and identify current and future work in the areas of accelerator technology and superconducting materials which will build upon it