Microwave Linear Accelerators

Course Description

• Microwave linear accelerators are introduced starting with the principles of acceleration, accelerating structures, and microwave electronics as applied to the accelerator circuit.
• Structure modelling and design are developed from an elementary point of view, with CAD lab exercises for illustration.
• Topics include quality factor, [R/Q], shunt impedance, loss factor, VSWR, Slater's theorem, external coupling, cell-to-cell coupling, Brillouin curve, tuning errors, tuning, tolerances, field-symmetry.
• The behavior of standing-wave and travelling-wave structures is analyzed on and off resonance, in cold test, and in operation with beam loading.
• Additional topics will be touched on as they influence linac design including rf systems, instrumentation, beam dynamics, wakefields. Illustrations and exercises will be drawn from practical problems in industrial, medical and high energy physics applications.
• Prerequisites: Vector Calculus, Electrodynamics.