17–22 May 2026
C.I.D
Europe/Zurich timezone

Commissioning of the Injector System for the X-Band Electron Linear Accelerator in Melbourne

TUP2695
19 May 2026, 16:00
2h
C.I.D

C.I.D

Deauville, France
Poster Presentation MC2.T02: Photon sources: Electron Sources Poster session

Speaker

Joel Valerian (The University of Melbourne)

Description

The University of Melbourne’s X-band Laboratory for Accelerators and Beams (X-LAB) hosts half of CERN’s high-gradient X-band (11.994 GHz) RF test stand, now known as Mel-BOX, and is currently developing a new X-band electron linear accelerator facility. Mel-BOX will be at the heart of the facility, providing high-power, high-repetition-rate RF to a TD24 accelerating structure. The electron beam will be generated by an injector system consisting of a 100 keV DC photogun, a pulsed UV laser, an S-band (2.9985 GHz) buncher, and several solenoids and coils. Downstream of the injector, the beamline will include a series of quadrupoles for beam transport and focusing, followed by a spectrometer used to measure the final beam energy before the beam enters the experimental endstation. The endstation is a vacuum chamber designed to accommodate a range of experimental configurations. While Mel-BOX continues to test X-band structures, significant progress has been made on the injector system. In this work, we present the integration and characterisation of key injector components. This includes measurements of a test laser using a camera and photodiode, RF characterisation of the buncher using a vector network analyser (VNA), and initial electron beam measurements using a Faraday cup and a phospor screen. We also describe the optimisation of the collimation and focusing solenoids to obtain workable emittance and beam size. Finally, measurements of vacuum conditions, dark current, and leakage radiation during conditioning are also reported.

Funding Agency

Melbourne Research Scholarship

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Author

Joel Valerian (The University of Melbourne)

Co-authors

Matteo Volpi (The University of Melbourne) Paarangat Pushkarna (The University of Melbourne) Paul Giansiracusa (The University of Melbourne) Roger Rassool (The University of Melbourne) Rohan Dowd (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) Suzanne Sheehy (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) Vincent Lu (The University of Melbourne) Yaw-Ren Eugene Tan (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation)

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