August 4, 2015
On 03 August 2015 the team led by Dr. Bagrat Grigoryan reached new high-charge operation mode for the AREAL RF photogun: bunch charge – 650 pC, electron beam energy – 4.8 MeV, pulse repetition rate – 5 Hz, bunch length – 480 fsec (FWHM) and RF power (Forward) – 5.8 MW. The designed nominal AREAL bunch charge is 100 pC. The high-charge AREAL operation mode is foreseen for experimental study of advanced wake field based acceleration and radiation concepts.
The new operation mode has been accomplished after the facility performance optimization and tuning during the period of June-July 2015. The AREAL maintenance included:
- Optimization of cathode position, RF components and gun resonance stability
- Optimization and upgrade of gun cooling system
- Measurements and fine tune of High Power RF components
- Optimization of timing and synchronization system