SHE cw LINAC demonstrator

19.11.2015 | 

Following the successful factory acceptance test in London in October, the first section of a superconducting accelerator, the so-called (continuous wave) cw-linac demonstrator, has been delivered to GSI.

The cw-linac demonstrator project is realized in collaboration between the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM), the Institute of Applied Physics of Goethe University Frankfurt (IAP), and GSI Darmstadt. It will pave the way to a next-generation superconducting linear accelerator providing high-intensity (continuous wave) heavy-ion beams to users in the future. In particular, the superheavy elements research program will benefit from such a new machine.

A superconducting CH (Crossbar H-Mode) cavity developed at IAP constitutes the heart of the cw-linac demonstrator. Site acceptance tests are planned to start on the GSI Campus still this year. The necessary infrastructure including an rf bunker has been prepared at the HLI in recent years with strong support of the expert groups from the FAIR@GSI project division LO.

For the first time worldwide, such a cavity will be used to accelerate a heavy-ion beam provided by GSI’s UNILAC high charge state injector (HLI) in 2016. For matching to the ion beam the cryostat is equipped with two superconducting solenoids that came along with the cryostat from the London-based manufacturer Cryogenic Ltd. For the transport a dummy-cavity was installed as place holder for the actual CH cavity, which is presently being tested at the IAP in Frankfurt.

Contact: S. Mickat, V. Gettmann, M. Miski-Oglu, W. Barth