Characterisation and mitigation of RF knockout during beam stacking

Abstract

Beam stacking allows a Fixed Field alternating gradient Accelerator (FFA) to increase the extracted beam current whilst also allowing for a flexible time structure making FFAs a promising candidate for future spallation neutron sources and high beam intensity applications. For successful beam stacking, beam loss caused by RF knockout must be avoided. RF knockout can occur during beam stacking because of the finite dispersion function at the RF cavity location, which is unavoidable in a scaling FFA. In this work, the RF knockout resonance is characterised and through a series of experiments at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, we show that it is possible to suppress the loss from RF knockout.