A 35-MeV 100-mA cw linear accelerator is being designed by Los Alamos for use in the Fusion Materials Irradiation Test (FMIT) Facility. Essential to this program is the design, construction, and evaluation of performance of the accelerator's injector, low-energy beam transport, and radio-frequency quadrupole sections before they are shipped to the facility site. The installation and testing of some of these sections have begun as well as the testing of the rf, noninterceptive beam diagnostics, computer control, dc power, and vacuum systems. An overview of the accelerator systems and the performance to date is given.

The FMIT Accelerator

The rf system for the Fusion Materials Irradiation Test (FMIT) accelerator is currently in the design phase at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL). The 35-MeV, 100-mA deuteron beam will require approximately 6 MW of rf power at 80 MHz. The EIMAC 8973 power tetrode, capable of a 600-kW cw output, has been chosen as the final amplifier tube for each of 15 amplifier chains. The final power stage of each chain is designed to perform as a linear Class B amplifier. Each low-power rf system (less than or equal to 100W) is to be phase, amplitude, and frequency controlled to provide a drive signal for each high-power amplifier. Beam dynamics for particle acceleration and for minimal beam spill require each rf amplifier output to be phase controlled to +-1/sup 0/. The amplitude of the accelerating field must be held to +-1%. A varactor-tuned electronic phase shifter and a linear phase detector are under development for use in this system. To complement hardware development, analog computer simulations are being performed to optimize the closed-loop control characteristics of the system.

H.P. Johnson

Papers

Developments on the RF system for the Fusion Materials Irradiation Test Facility accelerator