Quick change of ion species of heavy-ion microbeam by cocktail beam acceleration technique with the JAEA AVF cyclotron

Kurashima, Satoshi; Yoshida, Kenichi; Oikawa, Masakazu*; Sato, Takahiro; Miyawaki, Nobumasa; Yuyama, Takahiro; Okumura, Susumu; Kashiwagi, Hirotsugu; Ishibori, Ikuo; Nara, Takayuki; Kamiya, Tomihiro; Fukuda, Mitsuhiro*; Yokota, Wataru

A heavy-ion microbeam with energy of hundreds of MeV is utilized for research in biotechnology and materials science at the JAEA AVF cyclotron facility. Beam users need microbeams providing a wide range of linear energy transfer (LET). In order to vary LET widely, we have to change the ion species and/or energy. A cocktail beam acceleration technique is frequently used to change the ion species quickly. Ion species and energy can be changed by slightly shifting the acceleration frequency. The cocktail acceleration technique has been applied to microbeam production for quick change of ion species of a microbeam. As a result, we have succeeded to reduce considerably microbeam changing time to within 30 minutes between a 260 MeV Ne and a 520 MeV Ar. No deterioration of a microbeam spot size has been confirmed using a secondary electron microscope image of a copper mesh.