The HBS belongs to the class of low energy compact accelerator based neutron sources. In the case of HBS the accelerator will provide a proton beam of 100 mA current and an energy of 70 MeV. The proton beam will be extracted from a hydrogen plasma, which will be ignited in the plasma generator of the proton source. An Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source will be used with an RF (Radio Frequency)-driven gas discharge.
The accelerator has to provide a pulsed proton beam for at least three target stations with an average beam power of 100 kW each resulting in a total average beam power of 300 kW and a total duty cycle of ~4.3%. With these parameters a normal conducting room temperature linear accelerator is considered with the advantages of easy access, simpler and available technology, lower price and high reliability.
The HBS linac will consist of a front end (ECR source, low energy beam transfer (LEBT, 2.5 MeV double RF quadrupole) and a drift tube linac (DTL) with 35 room temperature H-type cavities to achieve the final beam energy of 70 MeV. All RF structures are operated at 176.1 MHz and are designed for high duty cycle.
The accelerator development for the HBS is done in close collaboration with the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz.
Publications:
H. Podlech et al., Conceptual Design of the Proton Linac for the High Brilliance Neutron Source HBS, in Proc, IPAC19, Melbourne, 2019