An apparatus may include a drift tube assembly, the drift tube assembly defining a triple gap configuration, and arranged to accelerate and transmit an ion beam along abeam path. The apparatus may include a resonator, to output an RF signal to the drift tube assembly, and an RF quadrupole triplet, connected to the drift tube assembly, and arranged circumferentially around the beam path.

An apparatus, system and method. An apparatus may include an RF power assembly, arranged to output an RF signal; a resonator, coupled to receive the RF signal, the resonator comprising a first output end and a second output end, and a drift tube assembly, configured to transmit an ion beam, and coupled to the resonator. As such, the drift tube assembly may include a first AC drift tube electrode, coupled to the first output end, and a second AC drift tube electrode, coupled to the second output end and separated from the first AC drift tube by a first gap. The RF power assembly may be switchable to switch output from a first Eigenmode frequency to a second Eigenmode frequency.

An accelerator (30, 40, 50) includes: a plurality of acceleration cavities (31, 41, 51) having one or two acceleration gaps; and a plurality of first control means (33, 43, 53) provided with respect to each of the plurality of acceleration cavities, each of the plurality of first control means independently generating an oscillating electric field and controlling a motion of an ion beam inside a corresponding acceleration cavity. In addition, M-number of multipole magnets (32, 42, 52) which generate a magnetic field and which control a motion of an ion beam may be provided downstream to N-number of acceleration cavities. The first control means independently controls acceleration voltage and a phase thereof and supplies radiofrequency power. Accordingly, particularly in a front stage of acceleration, a DC beam from an ion generation source can be adiabatically captured.

An apparatus may include a drift tube assembly, comprising a plurality of drift tubes to conduct an ion beam along a beam propagation direction. The plurality of drift tubes may define a multi-gap configuration corresponding to a plurality of acceleration gaps, wherein the plurality of drift tubes further define a plurality of RF quadrupoles, respectively. As such, the plurality of quadrupoles are arranged to defocus the ion beam along a first direction at the plurality of acceleration gaps, respectively, where the first direction extends perpendicularly to the beam propagation direction.

A system that generates short charged particle packets or pulses (e.g., electron packets) without requiring a fast-switching-laser source is described. This system may include a charged particle source that produces a stream of continuous charged particles to propagate along a charged particle path. The system also includes a charged particle deflector positioned in the charged particle path to deflect the stream of continuous charged particles to a set of directions different from the charged particle path. The system additionally includes a series of beam blockers located downstream from the charged particle deflector and spaced from one another in a linear configuration as a beam-blocker grating. This beam-blocker grating can interact with the deflected stream of charged particles and divide the stream of the charged particles into a set of short particle packets. In one embodiment, the charged particles are electrons. The beam blockers can be conductors.

The invention provides a method for accelerating protons and carbon ions up to 450 MeV/u in a very compact linac, the method comprising subjecting the particles to a radio frequency quadrupole field to accelerate the particles to at least 3 MeV/u, a drift tube linac (DTL) to an energy of 20 MeV/u, followed by a coupled DTL to 45 MeV/u and finally a high-gradient section made of CCL-type standing wave cavities or negative harmonic traveling wave cavities operating at S-band frequencies and capable of delivering voltage gradients of 40 to 60 MV/m. Focusing the accelerated particles while accelerated to higher energy is provided by appropriately placed constant field permanent magnets and electromagnetic quadrupoles. The compactness and power efficiency of the linac is enabled by using high-gradient structure in the S-band frequencies for lower energy particles than ever before. The low-intensity required for hadron therapy allows the use of small-aperture S-band structures and the operation at very high gradient compared to high-intensity machines for research. Operating with very short sub-microsecond pulses at repetition rates up to 400 Hz allows the fast and flexible beam energy and intensity tuning not provided by existing hadron therapy machines. The designed linac is capable of accelerating ions as heavy as neon to the full 450 MeV/u energy, therefore allowing fast beam switching if different ion sources are installed in the front-end of the linac.

The invention provides a method for accelerating protons and carbon ions up to 450 MeV/u in a very compact linac, the method comprising subjecting the particles to a radio frequency quadrupole field to accelerate the particles to at least 3 MeV/u, a drift tube linac (DTL) to an energy of 20 MeV/u, followed by a coupled DTL to 45 MeV/u and finally a high-gradient section made of CCL-type standing wave cavities or negative harmonic traveling wave cavities operating at S-band frequencies and capable of delivering voltage gradients of 40 to 60 MV/m. Focusing the accelerated particles while accelerated to higher energy is provided by appropriately placed constant field permanent magnets and electromagnetic quadrupoles. The compactness and power efficiency of the linac is enabled by using high-gradient structure in the S-band frequencies for lower energy particles than ever before. The low-intensity required for hadron therapy allows the use of small-aperture S-band structures and the operation at very high gradient compared to high-intensity machines for research. Operating with very short sub-microsecond pulses at repetition rates up to 400 Hz allows the fast and flexible beam energy and intensity tuning not provided by existing hadron therapy machines. The designed linac is capable of accelerating ions as heavy as neon to the full 450 MeV/u energy, therefore allowing fast beam switching if different ion sources are installed in the front-end of the linac.

A system that generates short charged particle packets or pulses (e.g., electron packets) without requiring a fast-switching-laser source is described. This system may include a charged particle source that produces a stream of continuous charged particles to propagate along a charged particle path. The system also includes a charged particle deflector positioned in the charged particle path to deflect the stream of continuous charged particles to a set of directions different from the charged particle path. The system additionally includes a series of beam blockers located downstream from the charged particle deflector and spaced from one another in a linear configuration as a beam-blocker grating. This beam-blocker grating can interact with the deflected stream of charged particles and divide the stream of the charged particles into a set of short particle packets. In one embodiment, the charged particles are electrons. The beam blockers can be conductors.

An accelerator system and/or method is used to create radionuclides through particle bombardments of target elements by generating a collimated and focused energetic particle beam. The accelerator system and/or method is provided with an ion source, a main beam transport pipeline, a plurality of acceleration tanks, a plurality of beam tuning devices, a plurality of target transport pipelines, a plurality of magnet kickers, and a plurality of target chambers.

When accelerating first ions, radio frequency power is fed to a drift tube linear accelerator so that the phase difference between an accelerating half cycle for accelerating the first ions in one of the plurality of drift tube gaps and the accelerating half cycle for accelerating the accelerated first ions reaching the next drift tube gap is set to a first accelerating cycle phase difference; and when accelerating second ions having a charge-to-mass ratio lower than the first ions, the radio frequency power is fed to the drift tube linear accelerator so that the phase difference between an accelerating half cycle for accelerating the second ions in the one drift tube gap and the accelerating half cycle for the accelerated second ions reaching the next drift tube gap is set to a second accelerating cycle phase difference that is larger than the first accelerating cycle phase difference.