Development of New Operational Mode for NSLS-II Injector: Low Energy 100MeV Linac-to-Booster Injection

The NSLS-II injector consists of a 200 MeV linac and a 3 GeV full-energy booster synchrotron. The linac contains five traveling-wave S-band accelerating structures driven by two high-power klystrons, with a third klystron as spare. In the event that the spare klystron is not available, the failure of one klystron will prohibit the linac from injecting into the booster as the energy is too low. Therefore, we wish to develop a new operational mode that the NSLS-II injector can operate with a single klystron providing 100 MeV beam from the linac. A decremented approach with intermediate energies 170 MeV, 150 MeV, etc., takes advantages of pre-calculated booster ramps and beam based online optimization. By lowering the booster injection energy in a small step and online optimizing at each step, we were able to achieve 100 MeV booster injection. 170 MeV operation mode of the NSLS-II injector has been implemented since May 31, 2017, with a similar overall performance compared to the standard 200 MeV operation but fewer klystron trips. 100 MeV single-klystron operation has been successfully demonstrated with 20-30% overall efficiency, which is limited by booster acceptance.