Creation and Implementation of Computational Tools for Modeling and Optimization in Support of Developing a Cost Effective and Compact RF Linear Accelerator

Ion beams are widely used for discovery science and in industrial applications. At LBNL we are developing a compact multi-beam RF linear accelerator constructed using printed circuit board (PCB) wafers. Recent experiment has shown that a beam of Argon ions (Ar+) can be accelerated from 7 keV to 70 keV producing a 0.5 mA beam using 120 beamlets. To scale up to greater energies and currents a suite of computational tools are being developed to guide construction. These tools are created using Python in combination with a particle-in-cell (PIC) code Warp that is Python compatible. Here I will discuss the development and implementation of the computational tools that are being used for design and optimization in various accelerator characteristics such as transverse and longitudinal transport, and system geometries (gap spacing, electrostatic quadrupole ESQ shaping, etc.).