ANL, Argonne, Illinois, USA
ATLAS (the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System) is a super conducting heavy ion accelerator which can accelerate nearly all stable, and some unstable, isotopes between protons and uranium with a charge to mass range of 1/1 to 1/7. The maximum energy ranges of these accelerated ions are 7-17 MeV per nucleon with intensities ranging from a few thousand ions/second to microampere currents. On average ATLAS delivers a different ion species and energy each week to one of six target areas. ATLAS currently operates 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, and at least 40 weeks per year. Topics discussed will be how we handle day to day operation of the facility including start up, reusing old accelerator configurations for new experiments (scaling), tuning for in-flight produced radioactive beams, troubleshooting problems, and maintenance.
ANL, Argonne, USA
ATLAS, the world's first accelerator to use RF superconductivity for ion acceleration, has undergone a major facility upgrade with the goals of significantly increased stable-beam current for experiments and improved transmission for all beams. The dominant components of the upgrade are a) new CW-RFQ to replace the first three low β resonators, b) a new cryostat of seven β=0.077 quarter-wave resonators demonstrating world-record accelerating fields, c) an improved cryogenics system, and d) the retirement of the original tandem injector. This latest upgrade followed closely on the earlier development of a cryostat of β=0.144 quarter-wave resonators. This reconfigured ATLAS system has been in operation for over one year. This paper will discuss the on-line performance achieved for the redesigned system, plans for further improvement, and long term facility plans for new performance capabilities. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. This research used resources of ANL's ATLAS facility, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
ANL, Argonne, USA
The ATLAS linac at Argonne National Laboratory has recently been upgraded for higher beam intensity and transport efficiency. Following the installation of the new RFQ, we have performed a high-intensity run using a 40Ar8+ beam. A beam current of 7 pμA was successfully injected and accelerated in the RFQ and the first superconducting section of the linac to an energy of 1.5 MeV/u. Since then, a new superconducting module was installed in the Booster section of the linac replacing three old cryomodules of split-ring resonators. The split-rings are known to cause excessive beam steering leading to beam loss which limits the maximum current in ATLAS. We are planning a second run to try to push the beam current higher and farther into the linac. The ultimate goal is to accelerate 10 pμA to the Booster exit at 5 MeV/u. Among the limitations encountered in the first run are the large beam emittance at the ECR source and the beam loss in the LEBT. The results of these attempts will be presented and discussed.