Space charge compensation in the Linac4 low energy beam transport line with negative hydrogen ions.

The space charge effect of low energy, unbunched ion beams can be compensated by the trapping of ions or electrons into the beam potential. This has been studied for the 45 keV negative hydrogen ion beam in the CERN Linac4 Low Energy Beam Transport using the package IBSimu [T. Kalvas et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 02B703 (2010)], which allows the space charge calculation of the particle trajectories. The results of the beam simulations will be compared to emittance measurements of an H(-) beam at the CERN Linac4 3 MeV test stand, where the injection of hydrogen gas directly into the beam transport region has been used to modify the space charge compensation degree.