Design of a high-intensity RFQ for a possible LHC laser ion source

We have designed a 100 MHz RFQ to accelerate Pb25+ ions from 9.6 keV/u to 250 keV/u for the LHC ion program. We assume an input beam from a laser ion source with a total beam current of 90 mA, out of which 9 mA is Pb25+. The main challenge of the design is to match the tight longitudinal acceptance of the downstream Interdigital H structure while dealing with a high intensity beam composed of a variety of charge states. In this paper, we present a baseline setup optimized for nominal conditions, and show the sensitivity of the RFQ performance to varying input beam characteristics and rf parameters. Further studies will cover the compatibility of this design with an upgraded ECR source under investigation at CERN.