Triple drift ion beam bunching systems for enhanced bunching efficiency

To obtain high efficiency in bunching ions one generally uses a multiharmonic buncher or a double drift buncher. Here we have explored the possiblity of using a triple drift bunching system to obtain still higher bunching efficiency. It consists of three bunchers separated in space. The first buncher is excited with the fundamental rf wave whereas the other two bunchers are driven by the second harmonic. We have optimized the parameters of such a system and have shown that by using only two rf frequencies one can obtain bunching efficiency higher than what can be obtained with a multiharmonic buncher consisting of nine harmonics. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.