Hybrid standing wave linear accelerators providing accelerated charged particles or radiation beams

A hybrid linear accelerator comprising:

• a source of charged particles;
• a standing wave linear accelerator section configured to receive the input beam of electrons and accelerate the charged particles, the standing wave linear accelerator section providing an intermediate beam of accelerated charged particles;
• a traveling wave linear accelerator section configured to receive the intermediate beam of accelerated charged particles, and to further increase the momentum and energy of the accelerated electrons, the traveling wave linear accelerator section providing an output beam of charged particles;
• a drift tube configured to provide RF decoupling between the standing wave linear accelerator section and the traveling wave linear accelerator section, while also permitting transit of the intermediate beam of accelerated electrons from the standing wave linear accelerator section to the traveling wave linear accelerator section;
• an RF power source;
• and
• an RF splitter configured to receive RF power from the RF power source and to bifurcate the RF power into a first portion of RF power to be provided to the standing wave linear accelerator section and a second portion of RF power to be provided to the traveling wave linear accelerator section.

A hybrid linear accelerator comprising:

• a source of charged particles configured to provide an input beam of electrons;
• a standing wave linear accelerator section configured to receive the input beam of charged particles and accelerate the charged particles, the standing wave linear accelerator section providing an intermediate beam of accelerated charged particles;
• a traveling wave linear accelerator section configured to receive the intermediate beam of accelerated charged particles, and to further increase the momentum and energy of the accelerated charged particles, the traveling wave linear accelerator section having an output;
• an RF coupler configured to provide RF coupling between the standing wave linear accelerator section and the traveling wave linear accelerator section and to allow transit of the intermediate beam of accelerated electrons from the standing wave linear accelerator section to the traveling wave linear accelerator section;
• an RF source configured to provide RF power to both the standing wave linear accelerator section and the traveling wave linear accelerator section via an RF waveguide cooperative with the RF coupler;
• and
• an RF load cooperative with the output of the traveling wave linear accelerator section;
• and
• an RF switch configured to match the RF load with the RF power output by the traveling wave linear accelerator section to absorb power remaining after attenuation in the traveling wave linear accelerator section.

A method of accelerating charged particles by a hybrid linear accelerator comprising a standing wave linear accelerator section and a traveling wave linear accelerator section following the standing wave linear accelerator section, the method comprising:

• providing charged particles to the standing wave linear accelerator section;
• providing RF power to the hybrid linear accelerator to cause acceleration of the charged particles by the standing wave linear accelerator section and the traveling wave linear accelerator section;
• and
• adjusting RF power and/or phase in at least a portion of the hybrid linear accelerator to regulate energy and/or dose of a beam of accelerated charged particles output by the traveling wave linear accelerator section.