Achieving phase and amplitude stability in pulsed superconducting cavities

Superconducting cavities exhibit a high susceptibility to mechanical perturbations due to the narrow bandwidth of the cavities. Significant phase and amplitude errors can be induced by the frequency variations driven by microphonics and Lorentz force detuning especially in the case of pulsed operation where mechanical resonances of the cavity can be excited. While the relativistic electron and positron beams in the TESLA linacs will permit the control of the vector-sum of many cavities driven by one klystron, the non-relativistic proton beam in the linacs for SNSand the JAERI/KEK Joint Project limits the number of cavities that can be controlled by one klystron. Considerable experience of RF control at high gradients (>15 MV/m) with pulsed RF and pulsed beam has been gained at the TESLA Test Facility in which presently 16 cavities are driven by one klystron. The RF control system employs a completely digital feedback system to provide flexibility in the control algorithms, precise calibration of the vectorsum, and extensive diagnostics and exception handling capabilities. Presently under study is a piezotranslator based active compensation scheme for the time varying Lorentz force detuning which if successful will reduce RF power requirements at gradients >25 MV/m considerably and provide improved field stability

Design of low level RF control for the TESLA superstructure

The superstructure is a viable option for the TESLA linear collider because of a high effective gradient and a reduced number of rf components. However, the high number and close proximity of passband modes impose challenging demands on the rf control system. The control problem is complicated by the fact that the cavity probe signal does not exactly reflect the actual accelerating voltage experienced by the beam due to the different coupling of the generator, pickup probe and beam to the FM passband modes. The digital control system developed for the standard 9-cell cavity is not adequate for operation of the superstructure. As discussed in this paper, an additional filter is needed to guarantee robustness and stability. Based on rf control simulations the filter characteristic is optimized

Dynamic Lorentz force compensation with a fast piezoelectric tuner

Superconducting cavities are highly susceptible to small changes in resonance frequency due to their narrow bandwidth. At the proposed linac for the TESLA Linear Collider [1] the frequency changes resulting from mechanical deformations caused by Lorentz force detuning of the pulsed cavities will be of the order of the cavity bandwidth at the design operating gradient close to 25 MV/ m. The additional power required for field control is of the order of 10 % and will be intolerably high for the planned upgrade to 35 MV/m which appears to be feasible in the near future. While passive stiffening of the cavities is already applied to the present cavity design, the further reduction of the Lorentz force detuning constant is technically challenging. Therefore we propose an active scheme which reduces the timevarying Lorentz force detuning to much less than one cavity bandwidth. If successful, the scheme will improve the power efficiency of the TESLA linac significantly

Automated frequency tuning of SRF cavities at CEBAF

An automated cavity tuning procedure has been implemented in the CEBAF control system to tune the superconducting RF (SRF) cavities to their operating frequency of 1497 MHz. The capture range for coarse tuning algorithm (Burst Mode) is more than 20 cavity bandwidths (5 kHz). The fine tuning algorithm (Sweep Mode) calibrates the phase offset in the detuning angle measurement. This paper describes the implementation of these algorithms and experience of their operation in CEBAF control system. 3 refs., 5 figs

A prototype fast feedback system for energy lock at CEBAF

The beam energy at CEBAF must be controlled accurately against phase and gradient fluctuations in RF cavities in order to achieve a 2.5 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} relative energy spread. A prototype fast feedback system based on the concepts of Modern Control Theory has been implemented in the CEBAF control system to function as an energy lock. Measurements performed during the pulsed mode operations indicate presence of noise components at 4 Hz and 12 Hz on beam energy. This fast feedback prototype operates at 60 Hz rate and is integrated with EPICS. This paper describes the implementation of the fast feedback prototype, and operational experience with this system at CEBAF. 5 refs., 3 figs

Operation of the rf controls in the CEBAF injector

The CEBAF injector has produced its first relativistic beam with two superconducting cavities. Six RF control modules are used to control amplitude and phase in the chopper cavities, the buncher, the capture section, and the two superconducting cavities. In this paper the required stability and actual performance of the modules are discussed. For the superconducting cavity control, performance is consistent with energy stability of {approx}10{sup {minus}4}

First Observation of Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission in a Free-Electron Laser at 109 nm Wavelength

We present the first observation of Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) in a free-electron laser (FEL) in the Vacuum Ultraviolet regime at 109 nm wavelength (11 eV). The observed free-electron laser gain (approx. 3000) and the radiation characteristics, such as dependency on bunch charge, angular distribution, spectral width and intensity fluctuations all corroborate the existing models for SASE FELs.Comment: 6 pages including 6 figures; e-mail: [email protected]