Operation of the NSLS-II Injector with a Lower Booster Injection Energy
The NSLS-II injector consists of a 200 MeV linac and a 3 GeV full-energy booster synchrotron. The linac contains five traveling-wave S-band accelerating structures driven by two high-power klystrons. Optimization of the NSLS-II injector has continued since user operation started in October 2014. Beam losses have been minimized by the injector tuning and stabilization, and high level software has been developed to characterize the booster and injection parameters. However, due to the recently increased frequency of klystrons arcing which shortens the lifetime of the klystron, operation of the linac with lowered klystron output power would allow injection to be maintained with fewer trips and extended lifetime of klystrons. Apart from the energy difference, the low energy klystron operation is quite similar to the nominal 200 MeV operation. Injection trials were carried out with scaled magnet settings of the linac, linac-to- booster (LtB) transport line, and the booster. The beam was successfully injected into the booster on May 31, 2017 at the low energy mode of the 170 MeV LtB injection. Overall transfer efficiency from the linac to the storage ring is identical to the standard 200 MeV operation. The 170 MeV injection mode has been adopted in NSLS-II user operation ever since the beam study. In the most recent injector studies on June 28 and July 3, 2017, the booster injection energy was further decremented to the final target value of 100 MeV via applying the same method established in the 170 MeV operation. The ultimate value of 100 MeV is determined by the special requirement of operating the injector at single klystron while repairing the other klystron or with two klystrons with significantly reduced outputs for the purpose of maximizing klystron lifetimes.