Overview of Superconducting Photo Injectors

The success of most of the proposed electron accelerator projects for future FELs, ERLs or 4th generation light sources is contingent upon the development of an appropriate source to generate the electrons with an unprecedented combination of high-brightness, low emittance and high average current.
An elegant way is to combine the high brightness of RF guns with the superconducting technology. This concept was first proposed at the University of Wuppertal*. In 2002, the successful operation of a SRF photo-injector could be demonstrated at FZD for the 1st time**. However, this type of injectors is still in the R&D phase.
Challenges are the design of the cavity with its specific geometry, the choice of the photocathode type, its life time, a possible cavity contamination, the problems on coupling of high-average power into the cavity and the risk of beam excitation of higher order cavity modes.
During the last years several R&D projects have been launched. Most of them pursue different approaches to deal with these issues. This contribution gives an overview on the progress of the SRF photo-injector development based on the most prominent projects in the world.