This thesis describes a new design method for a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ), and its application
to the first stage of acceleration for carbon ions in the PAMELA injector.
Radiotherapy is a valuable form of cancer treatment, but current methods using photons or
electrons make it difficult to deliver an adequate dose to the tumour without damaging healthy
surrounding tissue and organs. Charged hadron beams, such as protons and carbon, deposit most of
the dose at the Bragg peak, which can be aligned with the tumour. This allows higher doses to treat
the cancer while minimising damage to healthy surrounding tissue and organs.
The PAMELA project (part of the BASROC consortium) aims to design new charged particle
therapy (CPT) facilities using non-scaling fixed-field alternating-gradient accelerators (ns-FFAGs).
This new technology offers significant advantages over both cyclotrons and synchrotrons for CPT.
The injector for the PAMELA FFAG accelerator includes separate pre-acceleration chains for protons
and carbon ions, culminating in a shared injection system into the first FFAG ring. Carbon ions are
pre-accelerated by an RFQ and a short linear accelerator (linac).
This thesis details the creation of an integrated system of software packages and custom code,
which facilitates the design of RFQ vane tips, utilising computer-aided design (CAD) models for
both simulation and manufacture, accurate multi-physics modelling of the electric field and particle
tracking simulations. This design process is described, along with benchmark results for the Front-
End Test Stand (FETS ) RFQ and application of the code in optimising a new RFQ design for
PAMELA.