Operational experience with the ELENA ion source

The Extremely Low ENergy Antiproton (ELENA) is a compact ring that was recently installed to complement the antimatter factory at CERN. A local H−/p source connected ELENA for commissioning purposes of and subsequent electrostatic transfer lines toward experiments, allowing progress with phase also in absence antiprotons. can produce pulses H−, length few µs an intensity approximately 50 µA 100 keV, mimic antiproton pulse extraction energy. In addition, deliver proton pulses, if need be. After years operation, several observations have been collected will be presented this work. Of particular interest observation fast (about 1 MHz) intra-pulse instability which resulted poor stability H− beam injected into ELENA. Possible ways stabilising found presented. kV High Voltage (HV) insulation transformer turned out most critical component hardware. original suffered from degradation over time iterations were necessary build reliable solution, details