A Field-cancellation Algorithm for Constructing Economical Planar Permanent Magnet (pm) Multipoles with Large High-quality Field Apertures*

In recent years studies have been initiated on a new class of multipole field generators consisting of cuboid planar permanent magnet (PM) pieces arranged in biplanar arrays of 2-fold rotational symmetry. These structures, first introduced for Free Electron Laser (FEL) applications, are based on reducing the rotational symmetry of conventional N-pole field generators from N-fold to 2-fold. One consequence of this reduction is a large higher-multipole content in a planar PM multipole's field at distances relatively close to the structure's axis, making it generally unsuitable for applications requiring a large high-quality field aperture. In this paper we outline an economical field-cancellation algorithm that can substantially decrease the harmonic content of a planar PM's field without breaking its biplanar geometry or 2fold rotational symmetry.