The Development of the Linac Coherent Light Source RF Gun

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is the first x-ray laser user facility based upon a free electron laser (FEL) requiring extraordinary beam quality to saturate at 1.5 angstroms within a 100 meter undulator.[1] This new type of light source is using the last kilometer of the three kilometer linac at SLAC to accelerate the beam to an energy as high as 13.6 GeV and required a new electron gun and injector to produce a very bright beam for acceleration. At the outset of the project it was recognized that existing RF guns had the potential to produce the desired beam but none had demonstrated it. Therefore a new RF gun or at least the modification of an existing gun was necessary. The parameters listed in Table 1 illustrate the unique characteristics of LCLS which drive the requirements for the electron gun as given in Table 2. The gun beam quality needs to accommodate emittance growth as the beam is travels through approximately one kilometer of linac and two bunch compressors before reaching the undulator. These beam requirements were demonstrated during the recent commissioning runs of the LCLS injector and linac [2] due to the successful design, fabrication, testing and operation of the LCLS gun. The goal of this paper is to relate the technical background of how the gun was able to achieve and in some cases exceed these requirements by understanding and correcting the deficiencies of the prototype s-band RF photocathode gun, the BNL/SLAC/UCLA Gun III. This paper begins with a brief history and technical description of Gun III and the Gun Test Facility (GTF) at SLAC, and studies of the gun's RF and emittance compensation solenoid. The work at the GTF identified the gun and solenoid deficiencies, and helped to define the specifications for the LCLS gun. Section 1.1.5 describes the modeling used to compute and correct the gun RF fields and Section 1.1.6 describes the use of these fields in the electron beam simulations. The magnetic design and measurements of the emittance compensation solenoid are discussed in Section 1.1.7. The novel feature of the LCLS solenoid is the embedded quadrupole correctors. The thermo-mechanical engineering of the LCLS gun is discussed in Section 1.1.8, and the cold and hot RF tests are described in Section 1.1.9. The results of this work are summarized and concluding remarks are given in Section 1.1.10

A 12 GHZ 50 MW Klystron for Support of Accelerator Research

A 12 GHz 50MW X-band klystron is under development at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Klystron Department. The klystron will be fabricated to support programs currently underway at three European Labs; CERN, PSI, and INFN Trieste. The choice of frequency selection was due to the CLIC RF frequency changing from 30 GHz to the European X-band frequency of 11.99 GHz in 2008. Since the Klystron Department currently builds 50MW klystrons at 11.424 GHz known collectively as the XL4 klystrons, it was deemed cost-effective to utilize many XL4 components by leaving the gun, electron beam transport, solenoid magnet and collector unchanged. To realize the rf parameters required, the rf cavities and rf output hardware were necessarily altered. Some improvements to the rf design have been made to reduce operating gradients and increase reliability. Changes in the multi-cell output structure, waveguide components, and the window will be discussed along with testing of the devices. Five klystrons known as XL5 klystrons are scheduled for production over the next two years

SLAC-PUB-15330 Sheet Beam Klystron for the Navy FEL

The objective of this project is to build a 2.1GHz, 200kW CW, sheet beam klystron for the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and their free electron laser (FEL) program. A design point was chosen based on optimal efficiency at minimal voltage while maintaining a drift tube cutoff to the fundamental frequency (as is customary for round beam klystrons) to avoid beam instability. Both solenoid and periodic permanent magnet (PPM) focusing schemes were evaluated for their ability to transport the beam and maintain beam stability. Final results from this study show beam stability in a solenoid field at all values above the Brillouin field (the minimum field required to transport the beam, i.e. to balance the electric field forces in the beam which would otherwise cause the beam to scallop or grow in size). However, the PPM focusing scheme was unstable at all achievable field strengths. For this reason the solenoid focusing scheme will be used as the baseline for the ONR sheet beam klystron. Given the weight and size advantages of a focusing scheme based on permanent magnets, further theoretical studies and simulations of the PPM design will be conducted to evaluate methods of stabilizing PPM transport of the beam in a future revision of the tube