Progress in the fabrication of the RFQ accelerator for the CERN Linac4

The construction of Linac4, the new 160 MeV CERN H- injector, has started with the goal of improving the LHC injection chain from 2015 with a new higher energy linac. The low energy front end of Linac4 is based on a 352 MHz, 3-m long Radiofrequency Quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator [1]. The RFQ accelerates the 70 mA, 45 keV H- beam from the RF source to the energy of 3 MeV. The fabrication of the RFQ has started at CERN in 2009 and is presently in progress, aiming at the completion of the full structure by early 2011. The RFQ consists of three modules, one meter each; the fabrication alternates machining phases and stress relief cycles, for copper stabilization. Two brazing steps are required: one to assemble the four parts composing a module, and a second one to install the stainless steel flanges. In order to monitor that the tight mechanical and alignment budget is not exceeded, metrology measurements at the CERN workshop and RF bead-pull measurements are performed during the fabrication process. In this paper we report results obtained during the machining and the assembly of the first module of the Linac4 RFQ and data produced by RF measurements performed during its fabrication.