R. Schurig

Operation of the superconducting RF photo gun at ELBE

As the first superconducting RF photo-injector (SRF gun) in practical operation, the SRF gun has been successfully connected to the superconducting linac ELBE at Forschungzentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. The injection with this new gun will improve the beam quality for the users of the radiation source. The SRF gun contains a 3½ cell superconducting accelerating cavity with a frequency of 1.3 GHz. The design is for use of normal conducting photocathodes. At present, caesium telluride photocathodes are applied which are illuminated by an ultraviolet laser beam. The kinetic energy of the produced electron beam is 3 MeV which belongs to a peak electric field of 16 MV/m in the cavity. The maximum bunch charge which is obtained and measured in a Faraday cup is about 400 pC (20 μA average current at a repetition rate of 50 kHz). The SRF gun injector is connected to the ELBE accelerator via a dogleg with two 45° deflection magnets. This connection beam line was commissioned in January 2010. A first beam injection into the ELBE accelerator has been carried out with a bunch charge of 120 pC (6 μA at 50 kHz). Detailed measurements showed that beam loss occurred in the dogleg above 60 pC due to the correlated energy spread. In order to find the optimal operation conditions, energy spread was measured in dependence of bunch charge, laser phase and further gun parameters. The Cs2Te photocathode shows an excellent life time. It is in the gun since May 2010 with about 300 h beam time and about 7 C extracted charge. In the present cavity, the limit for the acceleration gradient is field emission due to some defect on the cavity surface and problems during cleaning. Therefore a modified 3½ niobium cavity has been fabricated, which will increase the RF gradient in the gun and thus improve the beam parameters further.

Rossendorf SRF‐Gun Cavity Characteristics

At the Forschungszentrum Dresden‐Rossendorf the development and the setup of the 2nd superconducting radio frequency photo electron injector (SRF‐Photo‐Gun) is finished. This new injector is placed next to the existing thermionic gun of the superconducting linear accelerator ELBE. A connection between the accelerator and the SRF‐Gun will provide improved beam parameters for the users at the second half of 2009. At the moment the commissioning is fully under way. We will report on important results concerning cavity commissioning like measurements of: Q vs. E, microphonics, Lorentz detuning, tuner parameters, pressure sensibility and in‐situ fundamental mode field distribution calculated from measured pass band.

The new superconducting RF photoinjector at the ELBE linac

Most of the proposed electron accelerator projects for future free electron lasers, energy recovery linacs, or 4th generation light sources require electron beams with an unprecedented combination of high-brightness, low emittance and high average current. For that reason existing electron injectors must be considerably improved or new injector concepts developed. One very promising approach represents the superconducting radio frequency photoinjector (SRF gun). This injector type combines the advantages of a conventional photoelectron injector with that of superconducting acceleration, i.e. the very low RF losses and simple continuous wave operation. A SRF gun was developed and installed at Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf for operation at the ELBE superconducting linear accelerator. In November 2007 the first beam was produced. First commissioning results have been collected. Besides an improvement of beam quality and parameter range the SRF gun serves as a test bench for further development, evaluation and optimization since it is the first injector of its type which is operating at an accelerator worldwide

TWO YEARS EXPERIENCE WITH THE UPGRADED ELBE RF-SYSTEM DRIVEN BY 20 kW SOLID STATE AMPLIFIER BLOCKS (SSPA)

Since January 2012 the Superconducting 1.3 GHz CW Linac ELBE is equipped and in permanent operation with four 20 kW Solid State Amplifier Blocks (SSPA). The project and the design of the new RF system have been described in the papers [1] and. The experience gained within the first two years of operation is encouraging.