The GTS-LHC 14.5 GHz ECR ion source provides the ion beam, which after acceleration in the ion injector complex, is injected into the LHC, as well as being sent to fixed target experiments at CERN. Two experiments have been performed on the source. The stainless steel plasma chamber has been sputter-coated with a rather thick layer of aluminium on the surface facing the plasma; and the lead micro-oven has been modified to avoid the build-up of lead-oxide on the oven outlet. Details of the changes will be given, and results of beam measurements will be shown, with particular attention on how the stability and oven-refill schedule is impacted by these changes.

This contribution gives an overview of the beam performance of the LHC injector chain during Run 2. In the first part the various beam types used for LHC luminosity production with protons (e.g. 25 ns standard, 25 ns BCMS, 8b4e, 8b4e BCS) are described. The present performance limitations along the injector chain together with the achieved beam parameters at LHC injection (e.g. transverse emittance, intensity, batch spacing) are summarised. Also the special high intensity beams, which were studied within the LIU framework and also extracted to the LHC for Machine Development studies, are mentioned. The second part describes the evolution of the ion beams for the LHC throughout Run 2 and their optimisation for luminosity production.

The specifications set to the Linac4 ion source are: H- ion pulses of 0.5 ms duration, 80 mA intensity and 45 keV energy within a normalized emittance of 0.25 mmmrad RMS at a repetition rate of 2 Hz. In 2010, during the commissioning of a prototype based on H- production from the plasma volume, it was observed that the powerful co-extracted electron beam inherent to this type of ion source could destroy its electron beam dump well before reaching nominal parameters. However, the same source was able to provide 80 mA of protons mixed with a small fraction of H-2(+) and H-3(+) molecular ions. The commissioning of the radio frequency quadrupole accelerator (RFQ), beam chopper and H- beam diagnostics of the Linac4 are scheduled for 2012 and its final installation in the underground building is to start in 2013. Therefore, a crash program was launched in 2010 and reviewed in 2011 aiming at keeping the original Linac4 schedule with the following deliverables: Design and production of a volume ion source prototype suitable for 20-30 mA H- and 80 mA proton pulses at 45 keV by mid-2012. This first prototype will be dedicated to the commissioning of the low energy components of the Linac4. Design and production of a second prototype suitable for 40-50 mA H- based on an external RF solenoid plasma heating and cesiated-surface production mechanism in 2013 and a third prototype based on BNL's Magnetron aiming at reliable 2 Hz and 80 mA H- operations in 2014. In order to ease the future maintenance and allow operation with Ion sources based on three different production principles, an ion source "front end" providing alignment features, pulsed gas injection, pumping units, beam tuning capabilities and pulsed bipolar high voltage acceleration was designed and is being produced. This paper describes the progress of the Linac4 ion source program, the design of the Front end and first ion source prototype. Preliminary results of the summer 2012 commissioning are presented. The outlook on the future prototype ion sources is sketched.

Recent studies have shown that the prospects for significantly increasing bunch intensities in the LHC for the luminosity upgrade (HL-LHC) may be severely limited by the available cryogenic cooling capacity and the electron-cloud (EC) driven beam instability. However, it is planned that during the HL-LHC era the bunch intensities in the LHC will go up by nearly a factor of two compared to the LHC-design values. This motivates the exploration of additional EC mitigation techniques that can be adopted in addition to those already in place. Preliminary simulations indicated that long flat bunches can be beneficial over Gaussian bunches to reduce the EC build up. Rigorous studies using realistic bunch profiles have never been done. Therefore, we have undertaken an in-depth investigation in the CERN 26 GeV PS to see if we can validate the previous findings and, in particular, if flattening the bunch can mitigate the EC. Here we present the results from dedicated EC measurements in the PS using a variety of bunch shapes and a comparison with simulations. Finally, we investigate if reshaping the bunch profiles using a 2nd harmonic rf cavity can mitigate EC in the HL-LHC.

In the era of the Large Hadron Collider, the CERN injector complex comprising the 34 years old Linac2 with its primary proton source, is presently upgraded with a new linear accelerator for H− (Linac4). The design, construction, and test of volume production and cesiated RF-driven H− ion sources is presently ongoing with the final goal of producing an H− beam with 80 mA beam current, 45 keV beam energy, 500 μs pulse length, and a repetition rate of 2 Hz. In order to have quantitative information of the hydrogen gas density at the moment of plasma ignition the dynamic vacuum properties of the plasma generator were studied experimentally. We describe the experimental setup and present fast pressure-rise measurements for different parameters of the gas injection system, such as gas species (H2, He, N2, Ar), piezo valve voltage pulse length (200 - 500 μs), and injection pressure (400 - 2800 mbar). The obtained data are compared with a conductance model of the plasma generator.

CERN's Linac4 45 kV H(-) ion sources prototypes are installed at a dedicated ion source test stand and in the Linac4 tunnel. The operation of the pulsed hydrogen injection, RF sustained plasma, and pulsed high voltages are described. The first experimental results of two prototypes relying on 2 MHz RF-plasma heating are presented. The plasma is ignited via capacitive coupling, and sustained by inductive coupling. The light emitted from the plasma is collected by viewports pointing to the plasma chamber wall in the middle of the RF solenoid and to the plasma chamber axis. Preliminary measurements of optical emission spectroscopy and photometry of the plasma have been performed. The design of a cesiated ion source is presented. The volume source has produced a 45 keV H(-) beam of 16-22 mA which has successfully been used for the commissioning of the Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT), Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator, and chopper of Linac4.

The linear accelerator is the first vital stage of the LHC injector complex. The Linac4 is an H- linear accelerator intended to replace Linac2 as injector into the CERN accelerator complex. It is a machine 90 m long and it will accelerate H- ions up to 160 MeV. The Linac4 represent a crucial step for the LHC high luminosity program since it will allow improving brightness and reducing beam losses. The new linear accelerator is now under construction. A long reliability run will start during 2014.

The build up of an Electron Cloud (EC) has been observed at the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) during the last stages of the LHC high intensity beam preparation, especially after the bunch shortening before extraction. Two dedicated EC experiments, both equipped with two button pick-ups, a pressure gauge, a clearing electrode and a small dipole magnet, are available in two straight sections of the machine. A measurement campaign has been carried out, in order to scan the EC build-up of LHC-type beams with different bunch spacing, bunch intensity and bunch length. Such information, combined with the results from build up simulations, isof relevanceforthe characterizationin terms of Secondary Emission Yield (SEY) of the chamber inner surface. The interest is twofold: this will enable us to predict the EC build up distribution in the PS for higher intensity beams in the frame of the upgrade program, and it will provide validation of the EC simulation models and codes.

CERN's superconducting proton Linac (SPL) study investigates a 50 Hz high-energy, high-power Linac for H(-) ions. The SPL plasma generator is an evolution of the DESY ion source plasma generator currently operated at CERN's Linac4 test stand. The plasma generator is a step towards a particle source for the SPL, it is designed to handle 100 kW peak RF-power at a 6% duty factor. While the acquisition of an integrated hydrogen plasma optical spectrum is straightforward, the measurement of a time-resolved spectrum requires dedicated amplification schemes. The experimental setup for visible light based on photomultipliers and narrow bandwidth filters and the UV spectrometer setup are described. The H(α), H(β), and H(γ) Balmer line intensities, the Lyman band and alpha transition were measured. A parametric study of the optical emission from the Linac4 ion source and the SPL plasma generator as a function of RF-power and gas pressure is presented. The potential of optical emission spectrometry coupled to RF-power coupling measurements for on-line monitoring of short RF heated hydrogen plasma pulses is discussed.

As part of the ASACUSA (Atomic Spectroscopy And Collisions Using Slow Antiprotons) physics program a spin-flip cavity, for measurements of the ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of antihydrogen atoms, is needed. The purpose of the cavity is to excite antihydrogen atoms depending on their polarisation by a microwave field operating at 1.42 GHz. The delicacy of designing such a cavity lies in achieving and maintaining the required properties of this field over a large aperture of 10 cm and for a long period of time (required amplitude stability is 1% over 12 h). This paper presents the frequency fine tuning techniques developed to obtain the desired centre frequency of 1.42GHz with a Q value below 500 as well as the circuit used for the frequency sweep over a bandwidth of 6MHz.

Introduction Ion-induced desorption is a severe luminosity limitation of low charge state heavy-ion accelerators. Studying the phenomena for almost 10 years using different target materials and various ion beams and energies, provides a rather clear picture of the physical processes involved in ion-induced desorption at room temperature [1]. Because of limited experimental data [2], the situation is less obvious for gas desorption of cryogenic surfaces. Due to the importance of cryogenic surfaces in future heavy ion accelerators, we investigated the desorption behaviour in combination with the surface coverage of cryogenic surfaces at different temperatures. For the irradiation experiment we used two disk-shaped targets, bare copper and gold-coated (7μm) copper with a nickel diffusion barrier (2μm). The targets were mounted on a commercial vacuum cold head including radiation shielding and temperature diagnostics. A resistive heater allowed the control of the target temperature by means of a software power control (PID). The cold head including the target was mounted at the LINAC-3 beamline at CERN [1,2]. Before cooling, the whole setup was UHV-baked to achieve low pressures. This procedure should help to keep the surface gas coverage of the target as low as possible. From single shot measurements the pumping speed of the setup was measured by the decay of the pressure bump from the beam pulse. This information is necessary, since the surface of the target and shielding contribute to the pumping speed. During ion irradiation of the targets, desorption yields were measured by the pressure-rise method with a Bayard-Aplert vacuum gauge and a residual gas analyzer (RGA), both calibrated. The desorption yields were derived by the ideal gas law as follows:

The electron cloud effect can pose severe performance limitations in high-energy particle accelerators as the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). Mitigation techniques such as vacuum chamber thin film coatings with low secondary electron yields (SEY < 1.3) aim to reduce or even suppress this effect. The microwave transmission method, developed and first applied in 2003 at the SPS, measures the integrated electron cloud density over a long section of an accelerator. This paper summarizes the theory and measurement principle and describes the new SPS microwave transmission setup used to study the electron cloud mitigation of amorphous carbon coated SPS dipole vacuum chambers. Comparative results of carbon coated and bare stainless steel dipole vacuum chambers are given for the beam with nominal LHC 25 ns bunch-to-bunch spacing in the SPS and the electron cloud density is derived.

Following the Chamonix 2010 workshop a task force has been set up to study the feasibility and the impact of an energy upgrade of the PS Booster from the present 1.4 GeV to about 2 GeV. The working group has confirmed the feasibility of such an upgrade, and analysed in detail the impact on the accelerator hardware along with a cost estimate and a tentative planning. The outcome of the task force will be summarized, with particular emphasis on the remaining limitations, risks and uncertainties.

The ion-induced desorption experiment, installed in the CERN Heavy-Ion Accelerator LINAC 3, has been used to study the dynamic outgassing of cryogenic surfaces. Two different targets, bare and gold-coated copper, were bombarded under perpendicular impact with 4: 2 MeV/u Pb(54+) ions. Partial pressure rises of H(2), CH(4), CO, and CO(2) and effective desorption yields were measured at 300, 77, and 6.3 K using single shot and continuous ion bombardment techniques. We find that the heavy-ion-induced desorption yield is temperature dependent and investigate the influence of CO gas cryosorbed at 6.3 K. The gain in desorption yield reduction at cryogenic temperature vanishes after several monolayers of CO are cryosorbed on both targets. In this paper we describe the new cryogenic target assembly, the temperature-dependent pressure rise, desorption yield, and gas adsorption measurements.

During the past decade, intense experimental studies on the heavy-ion induced molecular desorption were performed in several particle accelerator laboratories worldwide in order to understand and overcome large dynamic pressure rises caused by lost beam ions. Different target materials and various coatings were studied for desorption and mitigation techniques were applied to heavy-ion accelerators. For the upgrade of the CERN injector complex, a coating of the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) vacuum system with a thin film of amorphous carbon is under study to mitigate the electron cloud effect observed during SPS operation with the nominal proton beam for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Since the SPS is also part of the heavy-ion injector chain for LHC, dynamic vacuum studies of amorphous carbon films are important to determine their ion induced desorption yields. At the CERN Heavy Ion Accelerator (LINAC 3), carbon-coated accelerator-type stainless steel vacuum chambers were tested for desorption using 4.2 MeV/u Pb(54) ions. We describe the experimental setup and method, present the results for unbaked and baked films, and summarize surface characterizations such as secondary electron yield measurements, x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy studies. Finally, we present a high-energy scaling of lead-ion induced desorption yields from the MeV/u to GeV/u range.

CERN’s LHC injector chain will have to deliver beams with ultimate brilliance as the LHC is heading for increased luminosity in the coming years. In order to overcome bottlenecks in the injector chain, an increase of the beam transfer energy from the CERN Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB) to the Proton Synchrotron (PS) has been investigated as a possible upgrade scenario. This paper gives an overview of the technical solutions and summarizes the conclusions of the feasibility study.

In the framework of the CERN accelerator complex upgrade program the construction of a new proton synchrotron (PS2) has been proposed. This paper summarizes the requirements and technical challenges for the PS2 vacuum system including dynamic vacuum effects as electron cloud and ion induced desorption. The PS2 vacuum system design is described comprising the machine sectorisation, the pumping system, vacuum instrumentation, and the bakeout system. Aspects on the interconnect design and machine impedance are discussed. A first vacuum chamber design for the PS2 main magnet system is presented.

The ground state hyperfine transition frequency of hydrogen is known to a very high precision and therefore the measurement of this transition frequency in antihydrogen is offering one of the most accurate tests of CPT symmetry. The ASACUSA collaboration at CERN will run an experiment designed to produce ground state antihydrogen atoms in a cusp trap. These antihydrogen atoms will pass with a low rate in the order of 1 per second through a spin-flip cavity where they get excited depending on their polarization by a 1.42 GHz magnetic field. Due to the small amount of antihydrogen atoms that will be available the requirement of good field homogeneity is imposed in order to obtain an interaction with as many antihydrogen atoms as possible. This leads to a requirement of an RF field deviation of less than ±10% transverse to the beam direction over a beam aperture with 10 cm diameter. All design aspects of this new spin-flip cavity, including the required field homogeneity and vacuum aspects, are discussed.