Beam loading compensation using real time bunch charge information from toroid monitor at flash

At pulsed linear accelerators, fast proportional rf control compensates beam loading sufficiently for single or a few bunches. In the case of long bunch trains, additional measures have to be taken commonly by adding a compensation signal to the rf drive signals calculated from the predicted beam intensity. In contrast to predictive methods, techniques based on real time beam measurements are sensitive to fast changes of the beam intensity and bunch patterns. At FLASH we apply a beam loading compensation scheme based on toroid monitor signals. This paper presents the compensation scheme, the calibration procedure and the effect on the beam.