Results of the APT RF power coupler development for superconducting linacs

Abstract

For the new baseline APT (Accelerator Production of Tritium) linac design, the power couplers are required to transmit 420 kW of CW RF power to the superconducting cavities at 700 MHz. These couplers consist of an airside waveguide-to-coax transition, an air/vacuum break made by two planar, coaxial windows, and a vacuum-side coaxial antenna section. The coaxial antenna allows adjustability of the RF matching to the superconducting cavities. Design, fabrication, and testing of the power coupler/window occurred over the last four years, and room temperature testing of the prototype design is complete. Coupler/window assemblies have transmitted power to 1 MW, CW and have handled full reflected 850 kW, CW over a limited standing-wave phase range. Couplers were tested with a portion of the outer conductor cooled by liquid nitrogen to study the effects of condensed gases. Final results, conclusions, and lessons learned about the coupler design, fabrication, and testing will be discussed.