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At the electron linac for beams with high brilliance and low emittance (ELBE) center for high-power radiation sources, the second version of a superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) photoinjector has been put into operation and has been routinely applied for user operation at the ELBE electron accelerator. SRF guns are suitable for generating a continuous wave electron beam with high average currents and high beam brightness. The SRF gun at ELBE has the goal to generate short electron pulses with bunch charges of 200–300 pC at typical repetition rates of 100 kHz for the production of superradiant, coherent terahertz radiation. The SRF gun includes a 3.5-cell, 1.3-GHz niobium cavity and a superconducting solenoid. A support system with liquid nitrogen (LN_{2}) cooling allows the operation of normal-conducting, high quantum efficiency photocathodes. We present the design and performance of the SRF gun as well as beam measurement results of the operation with Mg photocathodes at an acceleration gradient of 8 MV/m (4 MeV kinetic energy). In the last section, we discuss the SRF gun application for production of coherent terahertz radiation at the ELBE facility.

Contemporary particle injector technologies provide different advantages depending on the chosen design. In the case of copper rf injectors these is primarily the high accelerating field, enabling the generation of high charge bunches with very low emittance. However, the cost of that is a comparably low repetition rate. DC guns, on the other hand, can provide higher repetition rates and consequently increased beam currents at lower beam quality, i.e., increased emittance. The concept of a superconducting rf injector offers the opportunity to combine the advantages of both these concepts. However, it demands special concepts for emittance compensation, as the common approach with overlapping magnetic fields during the rf acceleration interferes with the limitations of superconductivity. The ELBE SRF Gun project is one of the most advanced in this field. Gun II, the second SRF injector at the Electron Linear accelerator with high Brilliance and low Emittance (ELBE), introduces new features for emittance compensation which were studied in detail over the last years. One of these methods is the integration of a superconducting solenoid into the cryostat. Another method uses rf focusing by retracting the photocathode's tip from the last cell of the resonator. This paper discusses both of these schemes by briefly outlining their setups, discussing results of numerical simulations of their impact, and presenting results of initial experimental beam measurements with Gun II.

At the radiation source ELBE a superconducting radio-frequency photoinjector (SRF gun) was developed and put into operation. Since 2010 the gun has delivered beam into the ELBE linac. A new driver laser with 13 MHz pulse repetition rate allows now to operate the free-electron lasers (FELs) with the SRF gun. This paper reports on the first lasing experiment with the far-infrared FEL at ELBE, describes the hardware, the electron beam parameters and the measurement of the FEL infrared radiation output.

A new SRF gun has been commissioned at the ELBE linac. The gun has an improved 3.5-cell cavity and a superconducting solenoid is integrated. Beam parameter measurements have been carried out with a Cu photocathode.

Most of the proposed electron accelerator projects for future FELs, ERLs or 4th generation light sources require electron beams with an unprecedented combination of high brightness, low emittance, and high average current. In all projects photoguns will be applied: DC-photoguns, normal conducting RF-photoguns (NC-guns), and superconducting RF photoguns (SRF-guns). While the concepts of DC- and NC-guns are well proofed, the SRF-gun development still possesses a high risk. Challenges are the design of the superconducting cavity, the choice of the photocathode type, its life time, a possible cavity contamination, the difficulty of coupling high average power into the gun, and, finally, the risk of beam excitation of higher-order cavity modes. In combination with SRF linacs, the SRF-guns seem to be the best solution for high average currents. Several R&D projects of SRF-gun have been launched. In this paper, we will give an overview of the progress of the SRF photoinjector development. In detail, the technical concept, the performance and the status of the Dresden Rossendorf SRF-gun project, a collaboration of BESSY, DESY, MBI and FZD, will be presented. The main design parameters of this SRF-gun are the final electron energy of 9.5 MeV, 1 mA average current, and transverse normalized emittances (rms) of 1 mm mrad at 77 pC and 2.5 mm mrad at 1 nC bunch charge. The 1.3 GHz cavity consists of three TESLA-shaped cells, a specially designed half-cell where the photocathode is placed and a choke filter in order to prevent RF losses at the cathode side. The normal-conducting photocathode with a Cs2Te photoemission layer is cooled by liquid nitrogen. The SRF-gun cryostat consists of a stainless steel vacuum vessel, a warm magnetic shield, a liquid nitrogen-cooled thermal shield and a titanium He tank with a two-phase supply tube. The 10 kW fundamental power coupler is adopted from the ELBE cryomodule. In a first commissioning and test period the gun will be operated in parallel to the accelerator. A diagnostic beamline will allow beam parameter measurement and further optimization of the SRF-gun. In a final step, the gun will be connected to the ELBE superconducting linear accelerator to deliver an improved electron beam to the user labs.

After discussing the demands on ERL injectors for different projects, we will discuss the technological challenges and the obtained solutions for different parts of the SRF gun. The first point is the shape of the gun cavity and the tuning system. An essential parameter is the length of the first cell, which is determined by the condition, that the field strength at the cathode has a maximal value at the moment of electron emission. If the cavity consists of different cells, as the 3 ½ cell cavity of the Rossendorf gun, two independent tuning systems are necessary. An essential point is the installation of a normal conducting cathode inside a superconducting cavity. The cathode must be isolated by a vacuum gap, it must be alignable and exchangeable from outside of the cryostat and on has to cool down it to LN2 temperature. The next point of discussion is the RF choke filter, which prevents the leakage of RF power, caused by the coaxial between the cathode and the cavity. Different solutions will be shown. In order to focus the beam and to avoid the increasing of transverse emittance a static magnetic field is applied immediately after the cathode in normal conducting RF guns. For a superconducting cavity three possibilities exist to reach the same effect: The first is to put a solenoid after the cavity and outside the cryostat. The second one is the so called RF focussing, where near the cathode a radial component of the RF field is created, which focus the beam. The most elegant way is to put an additional magnetic RF mode into the cavity. It is shown, that for emittance compensation the phase of this mode is not relevant and the amplitude is inside the limit, given by the maximal surface field strength. Especially for high current guns the input of RF power could be a problem. We will show the limits of the RF coupler in the current Rossendorf project and discuss the idea of a coaxial input of RF power from the cathode side of the gun, where the coaxial between the cathode and the cavity is the main part of the RF input coupler. In the last point we discuss the experimental results obtained in Rossendorf and present the status of the current project.

The superconducting radio frequency photoinjector (SRF gun) is one of the latest applications of superconducting rf technology in the accelerator field. Since superconducting photocathodes with high quantum efficiency are yet unavailable, normal conducting cathode material is the main choice for SRF photoinjectors. However, the compatibility between the photocathode and the cavity is one of the challenges for this concept. Recently, a SRF gun with ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}\mathrm{Te}$ cathode has been successfully operated in Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. In this paper, we will present the physical properties of ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}\mathrm{Te}$ photocathodes in the SC cavity, such as the quantum efficiency, the lifetime, the rejuvenation, the charge saturation, and the dark current.

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

A superconducting radio frequency (RF) photoelectron injector (SRF gun) is under development at the Research Center Dresden–Rossendorf. This project aims mainly at replacing the present thermionic gun of the superconducting electron linac ELBE. Thereby the beam quality is greatly improved. Especially, the normalized transverse emittance can be reduced by up to one order of magnitude depending on the operating conditions. The length of the electron bunches will be shortened by about two orders of magnitude making the present bunchers in the injection beam line dispensable. The maximum obtainable bunch charge of the present thermionic gun amounts to 80 pC. The SRF gun is designed to deliver also higher bunch charge values up to 2.5 nC. Therefore, this gun can be used also for advanced facilities such as energy recovery linacs (ERLs) and soft X-ray FELs. The SRF gun is designed as a 3 1 2 cell cavity structure with three cells basically TESLA cells supplemented by a newly developed gun cell and a choke filter. The exit energy is projected to be 9.5 MeV. In this paper, we present a description of the design of the SRF gun with special emphasis on the physical and technical problems arising from the necessity of integrating a photocathode into the superconducting cavity structure. Preparation, transfer, cooling and alignment of the photocathode are discussed. In designing the SRF gun cryostat for most components wherever possible the technical solutions were adapted from the ELBE cryostat in some cases with major modifications. As concerns the status of the project the design is finished, most parts are manufactured and the gun is being assembled. Some of the key components are tested in special test arrangements such as cavity warm tuning, cathode cooling, the mechanical behavior of the tuners and the effectiveness of the magnetic screening of the cavity.

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.