Novel electrostatic accelerating modular tube without gap insulators: a Faraday cage solution for pelletron accelerators

Abstract A gap insulator free modular electrostatic accelerating tube is designed for charged particle acceleration. For many decades, the metal insulator bonded electrostatic accelerating tubes were existing which are expensive. They are also prone to insulator damage due to high voltage discharge and degradation by the impact of beam and secondary electrons. By making them gap insulator free, all such problems go away and one can easily make the electrostatic accelerating tube by placing the electrodes in series, separated under ultra-high vacuum and thus utilizing vacuum as an insulator. The high voltage is coupled to first cylindrical electrode through longitudinal feed using a cylindrical electrode extended through a ceramic bonded stainless steel flange at the entrance of the tube. This electrode acts like a Faraday cage to allow beam entering in the tube. The multi-particle beam dynamics simulation are performed using Travel and TRACK codes to qualify the accelerating tube with smooth focusing. The electrical design studies confirm the field homogeneity of the order of 10 −3 , which enables linear acceleration of charged particles. This design has high-end applications in construction of low-energy ion beam facilities, electrostatic tandem accelerators and accelerator mass spectrometer systems.