Breakdown Characteristics Study on an 18 Cell X-band Structure

A CLIC designed 18 cells, low group velocity (2.4% to 1.0% c), X-band (11.4 GHz) accelerator structure (denoted T18) was designed at CERN, its cells were built at KEK, and it was assembled and tested at SLAC. An interesting feature of this structure is that the gradient in the last cell is about 50% higher than that in the first cell. This structure has been RF conditioned at SLAC NLCTA for about 1400 hours where it incurred about 2200 breakdowns. This paper presents the characteristics of these breakdowns, including (1) the breakdown rate dependence on gradient, pulse width and conditioning time, (2) the breakdown distribution along the structure, (3) relation between breakdown and pulsed heating dependence study and (4) electric field decay time for breakdown changing over the whole conditioning time. Overall, this structure performed very well, having a final breakdown rate of less than 1e-6/pulse/m at 106 MV/m with 230 ns pulse width

Processing and Breakdown Localization Rresults For an L-Band Standing-Wave Cavity

An L-band (1.3 GHz), normal-conducting, 5-cell, standing-wave cavity that was built as a prototype capture accelerator for the ILC is being high-power processed at SLAC. The goal is to demonstrate stable operation at 15 MV/m with 1 msec, 5 Hz pulses and the cavity immersed in a 0.5 Telsa solenoidal magnetic field. This paper summarizes the performance that was ultimately achieved and describes a novel analysis of the modal content of the stored energy in the cavity after a breakdown to determine on which iris it occurred

Performance of a 1.3 GHZ Normal-Conducting 5-Cell Standing-Wave Cavity

A 5-cell, normal-conducting, 1.3 GHz, standing-wave (SW) cavity was built as a prototype capture accelerator for the ILC positron source. Although the ILC uses predominantly superconducting cavities, the capture cavity location in both a high radiation environment and a solenoidal magnetic field requires it to be normal conducting. With the relatively high duty ILC beam pulses (1 msec at 5 Hz) and the high gradient required for efficient positron capture (15 MV/m), achieving adequate cavity cooling to prevent significant detuning is challenging. This paper presents the operational performance of this cavity including the processing history, characteristics of the breakdown events and the acceleration gradient witnessed by a single bunch at different injection times for different rf pulse lengths

Progress in L-Band Power Distribution System R&D at SLAC

We report on the L-band RF power distribution system (PDS) developed at SLAC for Fermilab's NML superconducting test accelerator facility. The makeup of the system, which allows tailoring of the power distribution to cavities by pairs, is briefly described. Cold test measurements of the system and the results of high power processing are presented. We also investigate the feasibility of eliminating the expensive, lossy circulators from the PDS by pair-feeding cavities through custom 3-dB hybrids. A computational model is used to simulate the impact on cavity field stability due to the reduced cavity-to-cavity isolation

A Dual-Moded Cavity for RF Breakdown Studies

The phenomenon of rf breakdown presents a technological limitation in the application of high-gradient particle acceleration in normal conducting rf structures. Attempts to understand the onset of this phenomenon and to study its limits with different materials, cell shapes, and pulse widths has been driven in recent years by linear collider development. One question of interest is the role magnetic field plays relative to electric field. A design is presented for a single, nonaccelerating, rf cavity resonant in two modes, which, driven independently, allow the rf magnetic field to be increased on the region of highest electric field without affecting the latter. The design allows for the potential reuse of the cavity with different samples in the high-field region. High power data is not yet available

Localization of rf breakdowns in a standing wave cavity

At SLAC, a five-cell, normal-conducting, L-band (1.3 GHz), standing-wave (SW) cavity was built as a prototype positron capture accelerator for the ILC. The structure met the ILC gradient goal but required extensive rf processing. When rf breakdowns occurred, a large variation was observed in the decay rate of the stored energy in the cavity after the input power was shut off. It appeared that the breakdowns were isolating sections of the cavity, and that the trapped energy in those sections was then partitioned among its natural modes, producing a distinct beating pattern during the decay. To explore this phenomenon further, an equivalent circuit model of cavity was created that reproduces well its normal operating characteristics. The model was then used to compute the spectra of trapped energy for different numbers of isolated cells. The resulting modal patterns agree well with those of the breakdown data, and thus such a comparison appears to provide a means of identifying the irises on which the breakdowns occurred