Upgrade of the radio frequency quadrupole cooler and buncher for the HIE-ISOLDE project

The upgrade to the ISOLDE facility, HIE-ISOLDE, will include an upgrade to the RFQCB (radio frequency quadrupole cooler and buncher), the focus of which will be fixing the problems of alignment with the current machine, improving the integrity of the vacuum system, stabilizing the internal gas pressure, and the changes associated with a new position. The beam passage inside the RFQCB has been simulated with an independent code to highlight the importance of the internal gas pressure, to motivate design changes in the new RFQCB and to explain ways to improve the performance of the current machine. The suspected misalignment of ISCOOL has been quantified, and, using a simulation of ions passing through the external injection electrodes, the effect of the misalignment on machine acceptance has been detailed. Plans for the future RFQCB test stand and HIE-ISOLDE installation have been outlined. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.