Experimental studies of internal dark currents in high gradient accelerator structures at 17 GHz

Abstract

This thesis presents the measurement of the internal dark current in normal conducting single cell standing wave disk-loaded waveguide (DLWG) accelerator structures that operate at 17 GHz, and its comparison with theory. Dark current is the unwanted current of electrons generated by field emission, multipactor on the accelerator inner surfaces, or both. It is in distinction from the primary beam propagating along the accelerator axis. Dark current that propagates to the ends of the accelerator has been extensively studied, but this is the first detailed study of the internal dark current generated at the structure sidewalls by multipactor. Theoretical calculations indicate that the collision of electrons on the accelerator sidewall will lead to secondary electron emission and subsequent resonant multipactor discharges. Simulations of the multipactor modes were carried out with both our inhouse particle tracking code and with the commercial CST PIC code.

Multipactor modes of different orders were predicted to appear at the sidewall with increasing acceleration gradient. The first tested cavities were fabricated from copper and had a sidewall that was either uncoated or coated with diamond-like carbon or titanium nitride. The dark current was measured by a downstream current monitor and by current monitors behind two thin slits opened on the cavity sidewall. With increasing gradient, the downstream dark current increased monotonically, as expected for field emission. The variation of the internal, side dark current was not monotonic but showed the onset of peaks at gradients near 45 and 65 MV/m, in good agreement with simulations using the CST code as well as the in-house code. These were identified as the N = 2 and N = 1 single surface one-point multipactor resonances. The total internal dark current was estimated at ~15 - 30 A. The coated sidewall cavities showed the same multipactor resonances as the uncoated structure.

A second set of tests was conducted with a structure with an axisymmetric elliptical central cell sidewall, which was predicted to suppress the internal dark current. After conditioning with 2.2x10⁵ pulses to 93 MV/m, the multipactor modes were completely suppressed and no multipactor resonances were observed. Studies of internal dark current may help to understand the rf conditioning and the ultimate breakdown performance of high gradient rf accelerator structures.