Speaker
Description
RF breakdown remains one of the principal limitations to high-gradient operation in normal-conducting accelerating cavities. Although breakdown under conventional long-pulse operation has been extensively studied, its behavior in the nanosecond short-pulse regime remains comparatively unexplored. In this regime, reduced pulse duration is expected to influence the development of field emission, surface heating, electron multiplication, and plasma formation, thereby modifying the onset of breakdown. To investigate these effects experimentally, a dedicated single-cell X-band cavity has been developed for high-power testing at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA). The experiment operates with adjustable RF pulses in the few-nanosecond range and is equipped with diagnostics for RF signals, cavity fields, and time-resolved dark current measurements. We present the cavity design, low-power characterization, and the experimental diagnostic setup, supplemented by high-power test results as available. These results provide experimental insight into breakdown onset in the short-pulse regime and help establish the operating limits of high-gradient X-band cavities under nanosecond excitation.
| Working group | WG4 |
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