Wakefield Acceleration in Structures

Wakefield acceleration in dielectric loaded structures is discussed in this paper. We present a description of the dielectric wakefield accelerator concept, comparing some features of the collinear and the two beam accelerator configurations. The Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility (AWA) is discussed in detail, including major upgrades that are presently taking place. The basic features and capabilities of the facility are presented, and the dielectric wakefield acceleration results are briefly summarized. Possible variants of the two beam accelerator configuration are discussed, and work on planar dielectric structures in various institutions is presented. We conclude this report mentioning prospective achievements of dielectric wakefield accelerating structures

Overestimation of thermal emittance in solenoid scans due to coupled transverse motion

The solenoid scan is a widely used method for the in-situ measurement of the thermal emittance in a photocathode gun. The popularity of this method is due to its simplicity and convenience since all rf photocathode guns are equipped with an emittance compensation solenoid. This paper shows that the solenoid scan measurement overestimates the thermal emittance in the ordinary measurement configuration due to a weak quadrupole field (present in either the rf gun or gun solenoid) followed by a rotation in the solenoid. This coupled transverse dynamics aberration introduces a correlation between the beam's horizontal and vertical motion leading to an increase in the measured 2D transverse emittance, thus the overestimation of the thermal emittance. This effect was systematically studied using both analytic expressions and numerical simulations. These studies were experimentally verified using an L-band 1.6-cell rf photocathode gun with a cesium telluride cathode, which shows a thermal emittance overestimation of 35% with a rms laser spot size of 2.7 mm. The paper concludes by showing that the accuracy of the solenoid scan can be improved by using a quadrupole magnet corrector, consisting of a pair of normal and skew quadrupole magnets.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure

Proposed Dark Current Studies at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility

A study of dark currents has been initiated at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility (AWA). Emission of dark current is closely related to a breakdown. Breakdown may include several factors such as local field enhancement, explosive electron emission, Ohmic heating, tensile stress produced by electric field, and others. The AWA is building a dedicated facility to test various models for breakdown mechanisms and to determine the roles of different factors in the breakdown. An imaging system is being put together to identify single emitters on the cathode surface. This will allow us to study dark current properties in the gun. We also plan to trigger breakdown events with a high-powered laser at various wavelengths (IR to UV). Another experimental idea follows from the recent work on a Schottky-enabled photoemission in an RF photoinjector that allows us to determine in situ the field enhancement factor on a cathode surface. Monitoring the field enhancement factor before and after can shed some light on a modification of metal surface after the breakdown