Abstract
The post-linac energy collimation system of future e+e− multi-TeV linear colliders is designed to fulfil an essential function of protection of the Beam Delivery System (BDS) against miss-steered or errant beams likely generated by failure modes in the main linac. For the case of the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC), the energy collimators are required to withstand the impact of a full bunch train in case of failure. This condition makes the design of the energy collimation system especially challenging, if we take into account the need to dispose of an unprecedented transverse beam energy density per beam of the order of GJ/mm2, when assuming the nominal CLIC beam parameters at 3 TeV centre-of-mass energy, which translates into an extremely high damage potential of uncontrolled beams. This leads to research activities involving new collimator materials and novel collimation techniques. The increase of the transverse spot size at the collimators using nonlinear magnets is a potential solution to guarantee the survival of the collimators. In this paper we present an alternative nonlinear optics based on a multipole magnet pair for energy collimation. In order to preserve an acceptable luminosity performance, we carefully study the general conditions for self-cancellation of optical aberrations between two multipoles. This nonlinear optics scheme is adapted to the requirements of the post-linac energy collimation system for the CLIC BDS, and its performance is investigated by means of beam tracking simulations. Although applied to the CLIC case, this nonlinear protection system could be adapted to other future colliders.