Speaker
Description
High-gradient operation of normal-conducting radiofrequency (RF) cavities is fundamentally limited by RF breakdown, a phenomenon driven by processes including field emission, surface heating, multipacting and plasma formation. Recent studies have indicated that operating the cavities in a short-pulse regime, with RF pulses of only a few nanoseconds long, can modify the onset and dynamics of breakdown. In particular, short pulses are instrumental in limiting multipactor-driven electron growth and reducing field-emission-induced Joule heating on cavity surfaces. However, systematic experimental investigations into these dynamics are limited. We present the design of a dedicated experiment using a single-cell high-gradient X-band cavity, to be tested at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA), for studying RF breakdown with short pulses. The experiment will employ short, adjustable RF pulses in the few-nanosecond range. We will detail the cavity design optimized for short-pulse operation, the planned operating parameter space for the measurements, and the diagnostics for time-resolved dark current and RF signals, with the ultimate goal of quantifying how breakdown behavior changes as a function of pulse length and field gradient.
Funding Agency
This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics under Award DE-SC0021928.
| In which format do you inted to submit your paper? | LaTeX |
|---|