Table top, pulsed, relativistic electron gun with GV/m gradient

We present the design and performance characteristics of a compact high voltage pulser with 150 ps rise time, 0.2 to 2 ns adjustable flat top and up to 1 MV amplitude on a 80 Ohm load or up to 0.5 W on a 20 Ohm load, at 1 Hz repetition rate. Combination of a laser triggered SF{sub 6} and a liquid cap is used to form the fast rising pulse and maintain a low jitter between the laser, external trigger, and the high voltage pulsed output. The dark current and breakdown studies with this pulse applied between the electrodes of a diode indicate that fields up to 1 GV/m could be supported by stainless steel and copper cathodes without breaking down. The dark current from a conditioned cathode in a background pressure of 10{sup -7} Torr is below the detection limit of 0.5 mA of our system. Photoemission studies had been conducted with 300 kV applied between copper cathode and stainless steel anode separated by 2 mm. KrF laser of 5 eV photon energy and 20 ns FWHM was used to irradiate the cathode. In these preliminary measurements, 3 nC charge and corresponding quantum efficiency of 3.5 x 10{sup -4} have been obtained. Future plans include increasing the gradient to GV/m range, decreasing the laser pulse duration to ps and subps range and increasing the electron energy to a few MeV

A high current, high gradient, laser excited, pulsed electron gun

This paper describes a pulsed electron gun that can be used as an FEL, as an injector for electron linear accelerators or for rf power generation. It comprises a 1 to 5 MeV, 1 to 2 ns pulsed power supply feeding a single diode, photoexcited acceleration gap. Beam quality of a {approximately}1nC charge in {approximately}1 GV/m field was studied. Computations of the beam parameters as a function of electrode configuration and peak electron current are presented together with descriptions of the power supply, laser and beam diagnostics systems

Performance of magnesium cathode in the S-band RF gun

In this paper, the authors present the preliminary results of the performance of magnesium cathode in a high frequency RF gun. The quantum efficiency of Mg showed a dramatic improvement upon laser cleaning, increasing from 10{sup {minus}5} to 4 {times} 10{sup {minus}4} after two hours of cleaning, and to 2 {times} 10{sup {minus}3} after systematic cleaning. The cleaning procedure for this increase is described in detail. Charge measured as a function of the laser injection phase relative to the RF phase indicates that the temporal variation of the field on the cathode both due to the RF and the shielding effect of the emitted electrons play a critical role in the emission and extraction of electrons. A model that includes this variation is numerically fitted to the measured charge and the results are presented. The unexpected outcome of the fit was the low field enhancement factor (0.1) predicted by the model for the photoemission. The physical origin of this is still under investigation

Relativistic electron beams from cathodes at 1 GV/m gradient

In the past decade, there has been extensive research in the development of low emittance, high brightness electron injectors for linear collider and free electron laser applications. RF injectors with a few nC charge in a few ps, with an emittance of {approximately}1--5 {pi}mm mrad are operational in a number of facilities. In these devices, a laser beam irradiates a photocathode embedded in an RF cavity. The photoelectrons released by the laser are immediately accelerated to relativistic velocities, thereby reducing the space charge effects. The frequency of the RF and the design of the cavity are chosen to minimize the RF and space charge effects on the electron bunch so that low emittance, high brightness electron beam could be generated. Minimization of RF effects on emittnce growth require a low RF frequency while minimizing the space charge effects require high field and hence high RF frequency. The design is hence a compromise between these two conflicting requirements. Some of these limitations could be overcome by using a large pulsed electric field at the cathode rather than a RF field. The duration of the pulsed field should be chosen so that it is longer than the electron bunch length and the transit time in the accelerating region, but short enough to avoid breakdown problems. Development of a high brightness electron source using this scheme requires a pulse generator, a laser pulse of sufficient energy to trigger and synchronize the electrical pulses, and a short laser pulse to irradiate the photocathode and generate electron pulses to be accelerated. The designs of these components are described

Performance Data of a Pulsed Power Photo Injector

There has been a lot of interest in compact sources of high brightness, relativistic electron beams. One approach for developing such a source is to apply a high gradient that remains constant during the generation and acceleration of the electron beam. In this paper, we describe high voltage pulse generators that deliver up to 5 MV with 1 ns pulse duration. These devices are synchronizable to an external trigger with jitter of {approx}0.5 ns and can establish gradients in excess of 1 GV/m between two electrodes without breakdown. In the presence of field gradients up to 0.5 GV/m, electron beams of bunch lengths ranging from 1 ns to 0.3 ps and diameter < 300 {micro}m have been generated by irradiating the cathode with UV lasers. Characteristics of these electron beams as well as those produced via field emission at gradients up to 1 GV/m will be discussed

Emittance Measurements with a Pulsed Power Photo Injector

This paper describes measurements of beam spot size and emittance of electron beams from a pulsed power photo-injector operating at 150keV output energy. In these measurements, electron bunches with charge up to 20 pC were created by a 300 fs pulse duration Ti: Sapphire laser system illuminating a polished copper cathode. Images of the electron beam were captured at two locations downstream from a solenoid focusing magnet. The focal spot size was studied as a function of bunch charge and accelerating gradient. Beam waists down to 85 microns were obtained. The focal spot size was found to be dominated by spherical aberration at low beam charges, however the beam trajectory is in good agreement with simulation

Dark current measurements at field gradients above 1 GV/m

In this paper, the authors report the results of dark current studies on copper cathodes and stainless steel anodes held at a field gradient > 1 GV/m. The field emission current is , 1 A for fields less than 1 GV/m. As the field is increased, the dark current increases rapidly to 150 A for applied fields of {approximately} 1.7 GV/m. Fowler-Nordheim plots in this range of applied fields indicate a field enhancement factor of 10--20 for a copper cathode with a work function of 4.6 eV

Comparison of electrostatic and time dependent simulation codes for modeling a pulsed power gun

This paper is a result of a group of simulations used to determine the optimal parameters for a pulsed power electron gun. As electrostatic codes such as PBGUNS tend to be cheaper, easier to use, and have less stringent computational requirements than time dependent codes such as MAFIA, it was desirable to determine those regimes in which the electrostatic codes agree with time dependent models. It was also necessary to identify those problems that required time dependence, such as longitudinal variation in an electron bunch. PBGUNS was then used to perform the bulk of the optimization, with only those issues that required time dependence being resolved with MAFIA. Good agreement in transverse phase space values was found between the electrostatic code (PBGUNS) and the time dependent code (MAFIA) for a variety of pulse durations, even for pulse durations short compared to the electron transit time of the accelerating region. To obtain values for the longitudinal energy spread and the variation of the transverse phase space across the bunch, it was necessary to use MAFIA. The electrostatic codes have an advantage in terms of required computational resources and run time, and are therefore a good choice for modeling jobs in which the longitudinal energy spread is unimportant

A novel, high gradient, laser modulated, pulsed electron gun

This paper describes a high current, fast pulsed, laser excited, electron gun to operate at energies between 1 and 5 MeV. The authors present the design of the high voltage pulse generator, and the laser system, the experimental results obtained with copper cathode in fields > 1 GV/m and diode geometry optimized for the highest brightness using computer simulations. This electron source will generate an electron beam of brightness approaching 10{sup 16} A/m{sup 2} rad{sup 2}, which is 2 orders of magnitude greater than the present level of 10{sup 14} A/m{sup 2} rad{sup 2}, a parameter highly sought after for future linear colliders and short wavelength FELs. It will also be used to study properties of materials in the presence of high fields such as dark current emission and high voltage breakdown characteristics that will provide information critical to the development of high frequency accelerating structures. In addition, Bremsstrahlung radiation from these ultra short relativistic electrons, is expected to be an efficient source of x-ray photons for imaging transient effects in biological samples, microlithography and micromachining. These excellent beam qualities will be augmented for the first time by the simplicity and compactness of the device resulting in an efficient, affordable product with superior performance and unique capabilities

Photoemission properties of lead

In this paper we present a study of the photoemission properties of lead at several UV wavelengths, including a study of the damage threshold of electroplated lead under laser cleaning. A quantum efficiency in excess of 0.1% has been achieved for a laser cleaned, electroplated lead sample with a laser wavelength of 193 nm. Niobium cathodes have been measured for comparison, and lead is found to be a superior photoemitter for all measured wavelengths