Beam Formation Studies on the CERN IS03b H$^-$ Source

Abstract An H- ion source is being operated at the new 160 MeV linear injector (Linac4) of the CERN accelerator complex. The source’s plasma is of the Radio Frequency Inductively Coupled Plasma type (RF-ICP), without magnetic cusp and runs with Cs-loss compensation [1]. Vertical downward oriented filter- and electron dump-dipolar magnetic fields expand over the plasma chamber, beam-formation, beam-extraction and electron dump regions and generate horizontal asymmetry and beam angular deflection partially compensated by mechanical alignment of the front-end. The H- beam is generated via volume and caesiated plasma surface modes, the latter inducing a radial asymmetry characterized by an incr…