Reduction of Losses in Linacs for Protons or Heavy Ions

It is necessary to minimize the beam losses in linacs for high average currents in order to avoid serious problems due to radiation damage, dissipation and radio activation of the accelerator´s structure. A large part of the losses in existing linacs is due to incomplete bunching of the injected beam. Proposed improvements generally appear to be deficient in one or more respects if applied to linacs with conventional frequencies, injection energies and current densities. By preceding the linac proper with an accelerating structure and an energy analyzer, it becomes possible to separate the particles that remained outside the buckets from those that are inside so that they can be dumped in a controlled manner.