Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Neutralized drift compression offers an effective means for particle beam pulse compression and current amplification. In neutralized drift compression, a linear longitudinal velocity tilt (head-to-tail gradient) is applied to the non-relativistic beam pulse, so that the beam pulse compresses as it drifts in the focusing section. The beam current can increase by more than a factor of 100 in the longitudinal direction. We have performed an analytical study of how errors in the velocity tilt acquired by the beam in the induction bunching module limit the maximum longitudinal compression. It is found that the compression ratio is determined by the relative errors in the velocity tilt. That is, one-percent errors may limit the compression to a factor of one hundred. However, a part of the beam pulse where the errors are small may compress to much higher values, which are determined by the initial thermal spread of the beam pulse. It is also shown that sharp jumps in the compressed current density profile can be produced due to overlaying of different parts of the pulse near the focal plane. Examples of slowly varying and rapidly varying errors compared to the beam pulse duration are studied. For beam velocity errors given by a cubic function, the compression ratio can be described analytically. In this limit, a significant portion of the beam pulse is located in the broad wings of the pulse and is poorly compressed. The central part of the compressed pulse is determined by the thermal spread. The scaling law for maximum compression ratio is derived. In addition to a smooth variation in the velocity tilt, fast-changing errors during the pulse may appear in the induction bunching module if the voltage pulse is formed by several pulsed elements. Different parts of the pulse compress nearly simultaneously at the target and the compressed profile may have many peaks. The maximum compression is a function of both thermal spread and the velocity errors. The effects of the finite gap width of the bunching module on compression are analyzed analytically.