A High Current, High Gradient, Laser Excited, Pulsed Electron Gun

146 A High Current, High Gradient, Laser Excited, Pulsed Electron Gun--Brookhaven Technology Group, Inc., 25 East Loop Road, Stony Brook, NY 11790-3350; (516) 751-7410 Mr. Kenneth Batchelor, Principal Investigator Dr. J. Paul Farrell, Business Official DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-97ER82336 Amount: $71,695 Physics research centers need high intensity, high brightness electron beams to study the effects and demonstrate the feasibility of new electron acceleration techniques and applications. An accelerator system that incorporates recent advances in electron source technology and is compact, rugged and low cost would greatly facilitate developments and reduce the cost of research. This project is intended to do that by designing and building an electron gun that incorporates recent advances in beam formation into an integrated system suitable for use as an injector for advanced accelerator research. The goal is to maximize beam brightness and achieve a rugged, cost-effective design. The Phase I objective is to design a prototype, 1 million electron volt electron source that incorporates a high performance laser driven, metal photocathode and very high gradient acceleration to achieve the required beam parameters. Suitable diagnostic tools to characterize the electron beam will be investigated. In Phase II a prototype 5 million electron volt accelerator system will be built and tested; and diagnostics will be performed to determine the effectiveness of the design optimization. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: If successful, this project would provide a 5 million electron volt, high brightness, high current pulsed electron source for a benchtop free electron laser (FEL) or an injector for radio frequency electron accelerators. It is also anticipated that such a source would be useful in advanced accelerator R&D as well as medical and industrial FEL applications.