Evaluation of phase bunching in the central region of a cyclotron by a radial probe with a plastic scintillator

A new technique for evaluating the phase bunching performance in the central region of a cyclotron was developed. A newly-developed radial probe with a 6-mm-wide, 5-mm-height plastic scintillator was applied to analysis of the correlation between the internal beam phase distribution and the initial beam phase, defined by adjusting the relative RF phase of the beam buncher. The phase distribution measurement system, comprising the radial probe equipped with a plastic scintillator and the signal-processing modules, had a sufficiently good time resolution of 45 ps full-width at half-maximum for the phase bunching evaluation. The correlations between the buncher phase and the measured phase distribution for the acceleration harmonic number h=1 and 2 were consistent with the calculation result of the geometric trajectory analysis. For h=1 case of a 107 MeV 4He2+ beam, the internal beam phase region spread over 71 RF degrees full-width at quarter-maximum (FWQM) for the acceptable buncher phase region of 48 RF degrees, and no evidence of the phase bunching effect was observed. For h=2 case of a 260 MeV 20Ne7+ beam, the internal beam phase region for the acceptable buncher phase region of 59 RF degrees was compressed into 21 RF degrees FWQM. The phase bunching effect was sharply evident for h=2, and contributed to increase of the acceptable beam phase region and the beam intensity per phase width.