First Operation of Piave, the Heavy Ion Injector Based on Superconducting RFQs

The Positive Ion Accelerator for low-Velocity Ions (PIAVE [1], see Fig. 1), based on superconducting RFQs (SRFQs), has been completed in Fall 2004 with the first acceleration of beams from the ECR ion source. Superconducting RFQs were used, for the first time, for beam acceleration on a user-oriented accelerator complex. A general status of the injector performances is here given: it includes, besides the SRFQs, eight superconducting (SC) Quarter Wave Resonators (QWRs) and three bunchers; the beam is received from an ECR source on a HV platform and is delivered, through the SC accelerator ALPI, to nuclear physics experimental apparatuses. The paper is specially focused on the technological challenges related to the operation of the SC cavities, the cryogenics, control, diagnostics and vacuum systems.