Fast Switching Ferroelectric Materials for Accelerator Applications

Fast switching (< 10 nsec) measurement results on the recently developed BST(M) (barium strontium titanium oxide composition with magnesium-based additions) ferroelectric materials are presented. These materials can be used as the basis for new advanced technology components suitable for high-gradient accelerators. A ferroelectric ceramic has an electric field-dependent dielectric permittivity that can be altered by applying a bias voltage. Ferroelectric materials offer significant benefits for linear collider applications, in particular, for switching and control elements where a very short response time of <10 nsec is required. The measurement results presented here show that the new BST(M) ceramic exhibits a high tunability factor: a bias field of 40-50 kV/cm reduces the permittivity by a factor of 1.3-1.5. The recently developed technology of gold biasing contact deposition on large diameter (110 cm) thin wall ferroelectric rings allowed ~few nsec switching times in witness sample experiments. The ferroelectric rings can be used at high pulsed power (tens of megawatts) for X-band components as well as at high average power in the range of a few kilowatts for the L-band phase-shifter, under development for optimization of the ILC rf coupling. Accelerator applications include fast active X-band and Ka-band high-power ferroelectric switches, high-power X-band and L-band phase shifters, and tunable dielectric-loaded accelerating structures.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Proceedings of 2006 Advanced Accelerator Concepts Worksho

Experimental Observation of Energy Modulation in Electron Beams Passing Through Terahertz Dielectric Wakefield Structures

We report observation of a strong wakefield induced energy modulation in an energy-chirped electron bunch passing through a dielectric-lined waveguide. This modulation can be effectively converted into a spatial modulation forming micro-bunches with a periodicity of 0.5 - 1 picosecond, hence capable of driving coherent THz radiation. The experimental results agree well with theoretical predictions.Comment: v3. Reviewers' suggestions incorporated. Accepted by PR

Progress towards of a superconducting traveling wave accelerating structure

In the ILC project the required accelerating gradient is higher than 30 MeV/m. For current technology the maximum acceleration gradient in SC structures is determined mainly by the value of the surface RF magnetic field. In order to increase the gradient, the RF magnetic field is distributed homogeneously over the cavity surface (low-loss structure), and coupling to the beam is improved by introducing aperture 'noses' (reentrant structure). These features allow gradients in excess of 50 MeV/m to be obtained for a singe-cell cavity. Further improvement of the coupling to the beam may be achieved by using a TW SC structure with small phase advance per cell. We have demonstrated that an additional gradient increase by up to 46% may be possible if a {pi}/2 TW SC structure is employed. However, a TW SC structure requires a SC feedback waveguide to return the few GW of circulating RF power from the structure output back to the structure input. The test cavity with the feedback is designed to demonstrate the possibility of achieving a significantly higher gradient than existing SC structures

Experimental demonstration of wakefield effects in a THz planar diamond accelerating structure

We have directly measured THz wakefields induced by a subpicosecond, intense relativistic electron bunch in a diamond loaded accelerating structure via the wakefield acceleration method. We present here the beam test results from the first diamond based structure. Diamond has been chosen for its high breakdown threshold and unique thermoconductive properties. Fields produced by a leading (drive) beam were used to accelerate a trailing (witness) electron bunch which followed the drive bunch at a variable distance. The energy gain of a witness bunch as a function of its separation from the drive bunch describes the time structure of the generated wakefield.Comment: v3, accepted by APL. Updated to reflect reviewers' comment

Conceptual design of an L-band recirculating superconducting traveling wave accelerating structure for ILC

With this paper, we propose the conceptual design of a traveling wave accelerating structure for a superconducting accelerator. The overall goal is to study a traveling wave (TW) superconducting (SC) accelerating structure for ILC that allows an increased accelerating gradient and, therefore reduction of the length of the collider. The conceptual studies were performed in order to optimize the acceleration structure design by minimizing the surface fields inside the cavity of the structure, to make the design compatible with existing technology, and to determine the maximum achievable gain in the accelerating gradient. The proposed solution considers RF feedback system redirecting the accelerating wave that passed through the superconducting traveling wave acceleration (STWA) section back to the input of the accelerating structure. The STWA structure has more cells per unit length than a TESLA structure but provides an accelerating gradient higher than a TESLA structure, consequently reducing the cost. In this paper, the STWA cell shape optimization, coupler cell design and feedback waveguide solution are considered. We also discuss the field flatness in the superconducting TW structure, the HOM modes and multipactor performance have been studied as well. The proposed TW structure design gives an overall 46% gain over the SW ILC structure if the 10 m long TW structure is employed

New method of calculating the wakefields of a point charge in a waveguide of arbitrary cross section

A new method for calculating the Cherenkov wakefield acting on a point charged particle passing through a longitudinally homogeneous structure lined with layer(s) of an arbitrary retarding (dielectric, resistive, or corrugated) material has been developed. In this paper we present a rigorous derivation of the expressions for the fields that are valid at the cross section of the particle on the basis of a conformal mapping method. This new formalism allows reduction of the loss factor calculation to a simple derivation of a conformal mapping function from the arbitrary cross section onto a circular disc. We generalize these results to the case of a bunch with an arbitrary transverse distribution by deriving a two-dimensional Green function at the cross section of the particle. Consequently, for the first time analytical expressions for the transverse distributions of the electric field E_{z} for the most commonly used cylindrical, planar and elliptical cross section geometries are found. The proposed approach significantly decreases simulation time and opens new possibilities in optimizing wakefield effects resulting from short charged particle bunches for FEL and Linear Collider applications