LINAC2026 - 33rd Linear Accelerator Conference

High-Current Heavy-Ion Acceleration Above 100 mA in a Four-Rod RFQ

WE1A006

19 Aug 2026, 10:10

20m

2F Grand Ballroom (Daejeon Convention Center)

Invited Talk (Invitation Only) MC1.A03 Other beams WE1A - Invited Talks

Speaker

Masahiro Okamura (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

Description

We report on the achievement of a world-record peak beam current for heavy ions through the acceleration of fully stripped carbon ions (C⁶⁺) using a 100-MHz four-rod radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator combined with a Direct Plasma Injection Scheme (DPIS) driven by a laser ion source.
A peak beam current of 135 mA was successfully accelerated to an output energy of 320 keV/u. The beam current was measured downstream of the analyzing magnet for charge-state selection, confirming transport and acceleration of the high-intensity C⁶⁺ beam. This result represents the highest peak current achieved to date for heavy-ion RFQ acceleration.

Beam commissioning demonstrated stable RF operation and robust beam transmission at record current levels. The accelerator performance, space-charge behavior, and operational limits are discussed, together with the implications for next-generation high-current heavy-ion injectors and accelerator-driven applications in the >100 mA regime.