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The energy upgrade of the SPARC photo-injector at LNF-INFN (Italy) from 150 to more than 240 MeV will be done by replacing a low gradient S-Band accelerating structure with two C-band structures. The structures are Traveling Wave (TW) and Constant Impedance (CI), have symmetric axial input couplers and have been optimized to work with a SLED RF input pulse. In the paper we present the results of the low and high power RF tests on the two final fabricated structures that shown the feasibility of the operation at accelerating gradients larger than 35 MV/m., Proceedings of the 5th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2014, Dresden, Germany

The high brightness photo-injector in operation at the SPARC-LAB facility of the INFN-LNF, Italy, consists of a 150 MeV S-band electron accelerator aiming to explore the physics of low emittance high peak current electron beams and the related technology. Velocity bunching techniques, SASE and Seeded FEL experiments have been carried out successfully. To increase the beam energy so improving the performances of the experiments, it was decided to replace one S-band travelling wave accelerating cavity, with two C-band cavities that allow to reach higher energy gain per meter. The new C-band system is in advanced development phase and will be in operation early in 2013. The main technical issues of the C-band system and the R&D activities carried out till now are illustrated in detail in this paper.

SPARC C-band traveling wave cavities were originally designed for the SPARC energy upgrade in the single bunch operation mode. In the context of a gamma source based on Compton backscattering and based on the SPARC C-band technology, we investigated the issues related to the use of these structures in the multi-bunch operation mode. Several beam configurations have been considered and the effects of transverse and longitudinal long range wakefields on beam dynamics have been studied. In the paper we present the results of these studies and, in particular, the issues related to transverse beam break-up that could prevent the multi-bunch operation. Possible HOM damped structures are also proposed.

The energy upgrade of the SPARC photo-injector from 160 to more than 260 MeV will be done by replacing a low gradient 3m S-Band structure with two 1.4m high gradient C-band structures. The structures are travelling wave, constant impedance sections, have symmetric waveguide input couplers and have been optimized to work with a SLED RF input pulse. A prototype with a reduced number of cells has been fabricated and tested at high power in KEK (Japan) giving very good performances in terms of breakdown rates (10^6 bpp/m) at high accelerating gradient (>50 MV/m). The paper illustrates the design criteria of the structures, the fabrication procedure and the high power RF test results.