Beam quality and operational experience with the superconducting LINAC at the ISAC II rib facility

The ISAC II superconducting LINAC is now in the operational phase. The linac was commissioned with stable ion beams from an off-line source. The commissioning not only proved the integrity of the infrastructure but bench marked the beam quality and RF cavity performance. Measurements of the transverse and longitudinal emittance are consistent with little or no emittance growth through the acceleration. Transmission near 100% has been achieved though some solenoid steering is evident due to misalignment. An attempt at correcting the steering effect has been done. The machine is to be easy to tune, reliable in restoring beam and flexible enough to accommodate different tuning strategies. Software routines have been developed in order to facilitate the tuning process. In this paper the operational routine for tuning and beam delivery will be presented as well as the beam characteristics drawn from the commissioning studies.