High intensity proton source and LEBT for the European Spallation Source

At the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (INfN-LNS) the beam commissioning of the high intensity Proton Source (PS-ESS) and the Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) line for the European Spallation Source (ESS) has been completed. The official project schedule was satisfied and the packaging for the shipment to Lund will shortly begin. Due to the high flexibility of the magnetic system, and to the innovative approach developed for the commissioning, we were able to test a huge amount of configurations (more than 400000). The optimum source configuration that satisfy all requirements at the same time has been identified. The source is able to produce a stable total current between 40 and 125 mA (90 mA requested) through an 8 mm extraction aperture, with a proton fraction of up to 87% (75% requested). At the end of the LEBT the beam characteristics fully satisfy the ESS requirements: more than 70 mA of proton beam with 99% normalized beam emittance of 2.25 it.mm.mrad have been transported with intra pulse current fluctuation below: +1.5% (< 2% requested) and long tenn current fluctuation below 3% (< 3.5% requested). High reliability of the overall system was measured with long duration test and fast beam recovery after vacuum break of 24 hours. Results and used strategy will be shown in details