Abstract
This paper explores the physics of vacuum rf breakdowns in subterahertz high-gradient traveling-wave accelerating structures. We present the experimental results of rf tests of 200 GHz metallic accelerating structures, made of copper and copper-silver. These experiments were carried out at the Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests (FACET) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The rf fields were excited by the FACET ultrarelativistic electron beam. The traveling-wave structure is an open geometry, 10 cm long, composed of two halves separated by a gap. The rf frequency of the fundamental accelerating mode depends on the gap size and can be changed from 160 to 235 GHz. When the beam travels off axis, a deflecting field is induced in addition to the longitudinal field. We measure the deflecting forces by observing the displacement of the electron bunch and use this measurement to verify the expected accelerating gradient. Furthermore, we present the first quantitative measurement of rf breakdown rates in 200 GHz metallic accelerating structures. The breakdown rate of the copper structure is per pulse, with a peak surface electric field of and a rf pulse length of 0.3 ns, which at a relatively large gap of 1.5 mm, or one wavelength, corresponds to an accelerating gradient of . For the same breakdown rate, the copper-silver structure has a peak electric field of at a pulse length of 0.5 ns. For a gap of 1.1 mm, or 0.74 wavelengths, this corresponds to an accelerating gradient of .
18 More- Received 30 July 2016
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.19.111301
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society