High Charge Picosecond Pulses with a Double Gap Subharmonic Buncher

A new improved bunching system was designed in 1976 and installed in 1981 in the Argonne Electron Linac to replace the one installed in 1972. In the new bunching system, a spiral loaded double gap 12th subharmonic buncher is replacing the previous single gap 6th subharmonic buncher and a one wavelength fundamental frequency traveling wave prebuncher has replaced the previous two wavelength prebuncher. Individual pulses of picosecond (25 to 36) duration and up to 40 ηCoulomb in charge, with ΔE/E < ± 0.5% at FWHM over the energy range of 4 to 22 MeV, and a repetition rate from one to 1000 p psec are available to the experimenter on a routine basis. The design and the microwave properties of the cavity are discussed along with the general design of the injector and the results achieved.