Axial RF power input into photocathode electron guns

We discuss the coaxial power input in normal and superconducting RF (SRF) photoinjector cavities. Upstream coaxial power input has been previously used at the PITZ facility where the output beam tube is an intrinsic part of the coaxial transmission line into the gun. In this paper, we describe coaxial coupling from the cathode side of the gun. For normal conducting RF guns, in addition to the advantage from symmetric coupling, an emittance compensation solenoid can now be positioned close to the gun cavity to deliver optimal transverse emittance. Beam dynamics calculations demonstrate 0.8 mm-mrad at 1 nC in X-band. For an SRF gun, we present a design for coaxial input around the cathode using a superconducting coupling cell. This cell matches the external quality factor of the gun for different beam powers and there is no RF loss associated with the axial gap of the cathode. The heat input into the coaxial feed and the surface field of the coupler are discussed. For a 1.3 GHz half-cell gun cavity with stored energy of 6.6 J, a 2.5 MeV electron beam can be delivered with a peak accelerating field of 50 MV/m. At 10 mA, the external Q is 2.1 x 106 and the coaxial line power loss that must be cooled is 28 W.