Microwave Link Phase Compensation for Longitudinal Stochastic Cooling in Rhic*

A new microwave link has been developed for the longitudinal stochastic cooling system, replacing the fiber optic link used for the transmission of the beam signal from the pickup to the kicker. This new link reduces the pickup to kicker delay from 2/3 of a turn to 1/6 of a turn, which greatly improves the phase margin of the system and allows operation at higher frequencies. The microwave link also introduces phase modulation on the transmitted signal due to variations in the local oscillators and time of flight. A phase locked loop tracks a pilot tone generated at a frequency outside the bandwidth of the cooling system. Information from the PLL is used to calculate real-time corrections to the cooling system at a 10 kHz rate. The design of the pilot tone system is discussed and results from commissioning are described.