Dark Current in Superconducting RF Photoinjectors Measurements and Mitigation

Unwanted beam can cause beam losses and may produce acute or chronic damages of the accelerator. Furthermore it can considerably disturb experiments or increase its back ground. The operation of the superconducting RF photo gun at the ELBE accelerator has delivered the first experimental information on that topic. It was found, that dark current is an important issue, similar to that normal conducting RF photo injectors. In the presentation the measurement of dark current, its properties and analysis will be shown and we will discuss ways for mitigation, especially the construction of a dark current kicke

Emittance minimization at the ELBE superconducting electron gun

The transverse emittance is one of the most important quantities which characterize the quality of an electron source. For high quality experiments low beam emittance is required. By means of theoretical considerations and simulation calculations we have studied how the emittance of the Rossendorf superconducting radio-frequency photoelectron source (SRF gun) can be minimized. It turned out that neither a solenoid magnet nor the effect of space charge forces is needed to create a pronounced emittance minimum. The minimum appears by just adjusting the starting phase of the electron bunch with respect to the RF phase of the gun in a suitable way. Investigation of various correlations between the properties of the beam particles led to an explanation on how the minimum comes about. It is shown that the basic mechanism of minimization is the fact that the longitudinal properties of the particles (energy) are strongly influenced by the starting phase. Due to the coupling of the longitudinal and transverse degrees of freedom by the relativistic equation of motion the transverse degrees of freedom and thereby the emittance can be strongly influenced by the starting phase as well. The results obtained in this study will be applied to minimize the emittance in the commissioning phase of the SRF gun

Fabrication, Tuning, Treatment and Testing of Two 3.5 Cell Photo-Injector Cavities for the ELBE Linac

As part of a CRADA (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement) between Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and Thomas Jefferson Lab National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF) we have fabricated and tested two 1.3 GHz 3.5 cell photo-injector cavities from polycrystalline RRR niobium and large grain RRR niobium, respectively. The cavity with the better performance will replace the presently used injector cavity in the ELBE linac. The cavities have been fabricated and pre-tuned at TJNAF, while the more sophisticated final field tuning, the adjustment of the external couplings and the field profile measurement of transverse electric modes for RF focusing was done at HZDR. The following standard surface treatment and the vertical test was carried out at TJNAF's production facilities. A major challenge turned out to be the rinsing of the cathode cell, which has small opening (O-slash10mm) to receive the cathode stalk. Another unexpected problem encountered after etching, since large visible defects appeared in the least accessible cathode cell. This contribution reports about our experiences, initial results and the on-going diagnostic work to understand and fix the problems

Successful user operation of a superconducting radio-frequency photoelectron gun with Mg cathodes

At the electron linac for beams with high brilliance and low emittance (ELBE) center for high-power radiation sources, the second version of a superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) photoinjector has been put into operation and has been routinely applied for user operation at the ELBE electron accelerator. SRF guns are suitable for generating a continuous wave electron beam with high average currents and high beam brightness. The SRF gun at ELBE has the goal to generate short electron pulses with bunch charges of 200–300 pC at typical repetition rates of 100 kHz for the production of superradiant, coherent terahertz radiation. The SRF gun includes a 3.5-cell, 1.3-GHz niobium cavity and a superconducting solenoid. A support system with liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling allows the operation of normal-conducting, high quantum efficiency photocathodes. We present the design and performance of the SRF gun as well as beam measurement results of the operation with Mg photocathodes at an acceleration gradient of 8  MV/m (4 MeV kinetic energy). In the last section, we discuss the SRF gun application for production of coherent terahertz radiation at the ELBE facility

Thermal Emittance Measurement of the Cs2Te Photocathode in FZD Superconducting RF

The thermal emittance of the photocathode is an interesting physical property for the photoinjector, because it decides the minimum emittance the photoinjector can finally achieve. In this paper we will report the latest results of the thermal emittance of the Cs2Te photocathode in FZD Superconducting RF gun. The measurement is performed with solenoid scan method with very low bunch charge and relative large laser spot on cathode, in order to reduce the space charge effect as much as possible, and meanwhile to eliminate the wake fields and the effect from beam halos

Progress of SRF Gun Development and Operation at the ELBE Accelerator

Superconducting RF photo guns are suitable candidates for electron injectors in future free electron lasers and energy recovery linacs. For the radiation source ELBE an SRF gun was build and put into operation. During long term tests, the operation of normal conducting photocathodes in the superconducting cavity has been successfully demonstrated. At moderate average currents of some hundreds of amp; 956;A the Cs2Te photocathodes possess excellent lifetime. The gun s acceleration gradient is the key parameters for beam emittance and the maximum achievable bunch charge of the gun. Therefore two new cavities with higher performance were developed, built and treated. The final tests of these cavities are ongoing. An upgraded cryomodule with an integrated superconducting solenoid was buil

Modified SRF Photoinjector for the ELBE at HZDR

The superconducting radio frequency photoinjector (SRF photoinjector) with Cs2Te cathode has been successfully operated under the collaboration of HZB, DESY, HZDR, and MBI.[1] In order to improve the gradient of the gun cavity and the beam quality, a new modified SRF gun (SRF-gun 2008) has been designed. The main updates of the new cavity design for the new photoinjector were publisched before. (ID THPPO022 on the SRF09 Berlin.) This cavity is being fabricated in Jefferson Lab. In this paper the new ideas of the further parts of the SRF-gun 2008 will be presented. The most important issue is the special design of half-cell and choke filter. The cathode cooler is also slightly changed, which simplifies the installation of the cathode cooler in the cavity. The next update is the separation of input and output of the liquid nitrogen supply, for the purpose of the stability of the nitrogen pressure as well as the better possibility of temperature measurement. Another key point is the implementation of the superconducting solenoid inside the cryomodule. The position of the solenoid can be accurately adjusted with two stepmotors, which are thermally isolated to the solenoid itself