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Recent tests of a fully dressed TESLA cavity (input coupler, liquid helium tank, HOM couplers, tuner) have demonstrated that CW operation up to 20 MV/m is possible - in collaboration with DESY and Jefferson Lab.
HoBiCaT - A Test Facility for Superconducting Cavities
9-Cell TESLA Cavity
TESLA Cavities are the heart of Linacs in virtually all FEL projects. These cavities were originally developed by DESY and Cornell to drive Linacs for particle physics and hence to be operated in pulsed mode. When driving an FEL for a user facility to produce ultrashort X-ray pulses however, it is of major importance to increase the pulse rate to a continuous wave (CW) mode with up to 20 kHz. This can be achieved by using superconducting niobium cavities operated at 2 K.
HoBiCaT
However, the heat production due to remaining gas in the vacuum tube or minor inaccuracies in the cavities can exceed a level to make it impossible to keep the temperature as low as 2 K. Hence, special care has to be taken in the quality of the cavity. Ultra-clean assembly of all the cavity components thus is vital. Other options to reduce the losses include lowering the operating temperature from 2.0 K to 1.8 K.
HZB designed the HoBiCaT Test Facility to study CW operation of TESLA cavities. Recent tests, in collaboration with DESY and Jefferson Lab, of a fully dressed TESLA cavity (input coupler, liquid helium tank, HOM couplers, tuner) have demonstrated that CW operation up to 20 MV/m is possible.
