THE ULTRALAC : A COLLECTIVE WAVE ACCELERATOR FOR ULTRARELATIVISTIC PARTICLES
J. A. Nation and A. P. Anselmo
Laboratory of Plasma Studies and School of Electrical Engineering
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 148535401
Summary
Collective wave accelerator schemes utilizing slow waves
on an electron beam have an upper energy limit on the load
particles set by the drive beam drift velocity. Typical intense
electron beams operating near limiting current have drift veloc-
ities between 0.7~ and O.Qc, setting an energy limit for protons
of about 1 GeV. In order to collectively accelerate electrons or
ions above this limit, the drive wave must have a phase velocity
greater than electron beam drift velocity. The Ultralac concept
utilizes the fast upper hybrid wave for particle acceleration. It
has a phase velocity that is bounded only in the lower limit by
the electron drift velocity. Calculations are presented showing
the operating parameters of such a device including beam and
wave parameters and achievable field gradients, load particle
current limits and particle focusing.
Introduction
Up to now, attempts to build a collective particle accel-
erator using intense electron beam technology has emphasized
the use of slow waves. The first concept suggesting the use of
beam slow waves for acceleration of particles was the autores-
onant accelerator (ARA) described by Sloan and Drummond’
(1974). The ARA concept utilized the slow upper hybrid mode
on an unneutralized relativistic electron beam for ion acceler-
ation. The second collective wave concept forwarded was the
slow space wave accelerator proposed by Sprangle, Manheimer
and Drobot’ (1976). Since both techniques use slow waves, a
velocity barrier will exist on the load particles, resulting in a
final energy limit equal to the mass ratio times the kinetic en-
ergy of the electrons. In actual practice, the ultimate velocity
may be limited to a lower useful value by the available field
gradient. Obviously slow waves on an electron beam are of no
use for high energy applications.
The Ultralac Concept
Up to now, little or no work has been done on excitation
of waves on electron beams in an effort to collectively accel-
erate particles to ultra-relativistic energies. In a magnetized
bounded electron beam, many different linear waves exist in the
fluid model. For the lowest radial and azimuthally symmetric
modes, eight different branches of the dispersion relationship
can be plotted on a Brillouin diagram3. The electromagnetic
waves have four branches, the modified TM01 and TEol waves,
each with a positive and negative phase velocity branch. Four
other eigenmodes of a electromechanical nature can exist in
this system due to the collective aspects of the electron beam.
These electrokinetic modes are the fast and slow space charge
waves and the fast and slow upper hybrid waves. Of all these
waves, only the fast upper hybrid mode satisfies all of the accel-
erator criteria for ultra-relativistic particles. The upper hybrid
modes have also been referred to as Trivelpiece-Gould4 modes,
vortex waves’, and cyclotron modes3. For waves whose up-
per hybrid frequency is less than the empty waveguide cutoff
for the TMol electromagnetic wave, a quasi-static approxima-
tion can be used where the electric field is derivable from the
gradient of a scalar potential.
Ideally, if the fast upper hybrid mode can be excited pre-
cisely at the point which has phase velocity equal to c, this
mode would then become extremely useful for the collective
acceleration of ultra-relativistic particles. This is the Ultra-
lac concept. Since the fast upper hybrid mode is a positive
energy mode in a non-neutral particle beam, energy must be
added in order to excite it. We propose using a three wave
method employing a wiggler to couple energy from the neg-
ative energy modes to the fast wave. The success of using
wigglers to excite the positive energy electromagnetic modes
in beam-guide systems is well understood both theoretically
and experimentally’. In particular, the free electron laser has
been successfully developed, using the parametric excitation of
fast waves. In our case we want to excite a fast electrokinetic
and not an electromagnetic mode. This condition can be en-
sured if the wave is excited at a frequency below the lowest
guide electromagnetic cutoff frequency.
Using a linear, electrostatic fluid theory for a confined flow
beam in a finite magnetic field, we can derive a relativistic
dispersion relationship. If a relativistic rigid rotor equilibrium
is used, we recover a dispersion relationship similar to that of
Potz15 (1960). The use of this dispersion relation allows us to
calculate the trapping electric field, the field structure and the
power flow associated with the wave.
Basic Theorv
For cases when the hybrid wave frequency is lower than the
TM01 cutoff frequency, the theoretical analysis can be greatly
simplified by employing a quasi-static approximation. This
requires V x E = 0. The analysis yields the electrokinetic
modes that exist in the beam. For cases where the upper hybrid
frequency is equal to or greater than the TM01 cutoff frequency,
a fully electromagnetic model is necessary. This analysis, both
linear and non-linear, is presently being undertaken by Seyle#.
The quasi-static analysis employed here uses the continuity
equation, the momentum conservation equation, and Poissons’
equation to yield a characteristic dispersion relation.
The linear dispersion relation is derived from matching
the jump conditions for beam-vacuum boundary and setting
the wave potential at the wall equal to zero. For all values of
azimuthal mode number, n, this characteristic equation is
$(ka)K,(kb) - I,,(kb)K:,(ka)
J:, (kl a)
I,(ka)K,(kb) - I,(kb)K,(ka) = A(“‘k)~,Jkla) + B(w’k)
where
(1)
A(w,k) =
(w: + 72w; - w,‘)(wZ - w;, 1/Z
(WV2 - w,“)w,”
and
B(w, k) =
ny2w~w,
ka(w,2 - wZ)w*
In addition to these definitions, the perpendicular wavenum-
ber, kl, is defined as
kf = kt;;~2-+w~; (yw;);; )
P b
To simplify the equations, the Doppler shifted eigenfrequency
of the modes is defined as Wb = w - kvd - n&. Using the
145 CH2387-9/87KKKK-0145 $1.00 0 IEEE
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PAC 1987