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A new design for the RF electron gun of the Iranian Light Source Facility
(ILSF)
A. Sadeghipanah a,b , S. Ahmadiannamin a,b ,∗, M. Ostovar a,c , J. Roohi a , M. Bahrami a,b ,
Z. Pouyanrad a,d
a Iranian Light Source Facility (ILSF), Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
b School of particles and accelerators, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
c
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
d
Department of Energy Engineering and Physics, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
∗ Corresponding author at: Iranian Light Source Facility (ILSF), Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Artesh Highway, PO Box
19395-5746, Tehran, Iran.
E-mail address: ahmadiannamin@ipm.ir (S. Ahmadiannamin).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2023.168198
Received 11 November 2022; Received in revised form 5 March 2023; Accepted 8 March 2023
Available online 11 March 2023
0168-9002/© 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A. Sadeghipanah, S. Ahmadiannamin, M. Ostovar et al. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 1051 (2023) 168198
A. RF design
In the first step to developing the RF electron gun with the new
clamping method [10], the side-coupling cavity, shown in Fig. 2, should
be eliminated. Therefore, the new structure operates in 𝜋 mode, with
four bean-shaped slits for coupling RF power between the cells. The 3D
cross-section of the newly designed 𝜋 mode RF gun structure and the
bean-shaped slits for RF coupling between cells are shown in Fig. 5.
The next step is to shift the waveguide so that if the full-cell cavity
is divided in half, the waveguide and coupling iris are located above
only one half of the full-cell cavity, as shown in Fig. 6. The racetrack
geometry is chosen for the coupling iris since it is easier for machining.
A mechanical model of this newly designed 𝜋 mode RF electron gun is
Fig. 3. The momentum distribution of electrons in a bunch at the exit of the 𝜋∕2 mode depicted in Fig. 7. This figure shows that eliminating the side coupling
RF gun.
cavity and shifting the waveguide and the coupling iris forward has
made it possible to fabricate the RF gun with the new clamping method
instead of vacuum brazing. As depicted in Fig. 7, the 𝜋 mode RF gun
The low-energy electrons leaving the RF gun will be filtered in the consists of three main parts, which will be clamped together using
alpha magnet downstream, leaving a bunch with an energy spread of 12 long screws. The special copper gaskets are placed between the
no more than 10 percent. The momentum and transverse phase space main parts to provide the vacuum seal and RF contact at the same
distributions of the electron bunch after filtering low-energy electrons time. Two main vacuum ports are considered for the RF gun, one on
in the alpha magnet are shown in Fig. 4. The maximum charge of this the waveguide and another at the beam exit. If these ports are seen
filtered bunch is 100 pC (single bunch mode of operation). insufficient in the subsequent trials, four other openings are foreseen
There are previous experiences in fabricating accelerator RF cavities on the structure (two to each cavity), which are connected to vacuum
in Iran with applications in low-energy electron linear accelerator ports via knife-edge flanges. The R&D tests on this new method and
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A. Sadeghipanah, S. Ahmadiannamin, M. Ostovar et al. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 1051 (2023) 168198
Fig. 4. The momentum distribution (left) and transverse phase space distribution (right) of the electron bunch produced by the 𝜋∕2 mode RF gun after filtering low-energy
electrons in the alpha magnet.
Fig. 5. 3D cross-section of the 𝜋 mode RF gun structure (left) and the four bean-shaped slits for RF coupling between cells (right).
Fig. 6. Waveguide and coupling iris location on the outer half of full-cell cavity (left) and 3D view of racetrack coupling iris (right).
fabrication of the 𝜋 mode RF gun are discussed in the following sections kept below 40 percent to minimize the back-bombardment of electrons
of this article. on the cathode surface during the reverse RF phase. The coupling iris
The electrical field distribution inside the 𝜋 mode RF gun and its dimensions are optimized to have a coupling coefficient of 𝛽 = 1.5 and
profile on the beam axis at 2998 MHz are shown in Fig. 8. It should be hence a slightly over-coupled RF design, compensating for the beam
noted that the fields are normalized to the maximum input RF power of loading effects.
1 W. For a peak RF input power of 4 MW, the accelerating gradient of The asymmetry in the transverse electrical field distribution caused
around 80 MV/m can be achieved in the full-cell cavity, similar to our by the coupling iris and waveguide and its kick on the electron beam
previous 𝜋∕2 mode RF gun design. The half-cell to full-cell field ratio is was a concern, so we calculated this kick to assess its effect on the
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A. Sadeghipanah, S. Ahmadiannamin, M. Ostovar et al. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 1051 (2023) 168198
Fig. 7. Mechanical model of the 𝜋 mode RF electron gun. The copper gaskets are depicted in green (left), and the three main parts will be clamped together using 12 long screws
(right).
Fig. 8. Electrical field distribution inside the 𝜋 mode RF gun (left) and its profile on the beam axis (right). The fields are normalized to the maximum input RF power of 1 W.
electron beam. The amplitude of this kick for the peak input power of
4 MW is estimated to be 4.93 kV/m on the beam axis. This amount
is negligible compared to the 80 MV/m accelerating gradients of the
full-cell cavity; hence, there is no need to counteract the electrical field
asymmetry in the structure.
B. Beam dynamics study
Beam dynamics calculations are performed using the electromag-
netic fields of the 𝜋 mode RF gun to validate the design and be
confident of its proper operation. Fig. 9 demonstrates the momentum
distribution of electrons in a bunch at the exit of the 𝜋 mode RF
gun. The momentum and transverse phase space distributions of the
electron bunch after filtering low-energy electrons in the alpha magnet
are presented in Fig. 10. The filtered bunch has a maximum charge of
100pC, the same as prior calculations of the 𝜋∕2 mode gun. As seen Fig. 9. The momentum distribution of electrons in a bunch at the exit of the 𝜋 mode
by comparing Figs. 4 and 10, the beam dynamics properties of the 𝜋 RF gun.
mode RF gun are very similar to the one of the 𝜋∕2 mode RF gun with
a side-coupling cavity, Since the 𝜋 mode RF gun has the same on-axis
electromagnetic fields as the 𝜋∕2 mode gun. S-band cavity has been developed using this technique to understand
C. R&D tests this fabrication process better. The measurement setup for low-power
For the fabrication of RF accelerators, a new method is developed RF and vacuum tests on the sample cavity are shown in Fig. 12. The
at LNF-INFN based on clamping the parts together to eliminate the measured resonant frequency has a 2 MHz shift from the designed
vacuum brazing process. In the approach, a single cell’s front and back value, which can be compensated for by frequency tuners. The vacuum
parts are fabricated separately and assembled to make a single-cell pressure of 2.5×10−7 mbar is reached after 1 h of pumping with a turbo-
cavity using special copper gaskets and screws (see Fig. 11). A sample molecular pump without baking. After baking up to 120 ◦ C for 12 h,
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A. Sadeghipanah, S. Ahmadiannamin, M. Ostovar et al. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 1051 (2023) 168198
Fig. 10. The momentum distribution (left) and transverse phase space distribution (right) of the electron bunch produced by the 𝜋 mode RF gun after filtering low-energy electrons
in the alpha magnet.
Fig. 11. Half-parts of a single-cell RF cavity (left) and the special copper gaskets used to connect the half-parts (right).
Fig. 12. Setup for low-power RF and vacuum tests on the sample S-band cavity.
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A. Sadeghipanah, S. Ahmadiannamin, M. Ostovar et al. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 1051 (2023) 168198
Fig. 14. The triode electron gun’s Output current (left) and normalized transverse emittance (right).
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A. Sadeghipanah, S. Ahmadiannamin, M. Ostovar et al. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 1051 (2023) 168198
design has similar properties to our first approach, ensuring the proper
operation of this new RF gun.
The report of our recent R&D tests on the new fabrication method
is discussed in the next section. We performed the RF and vacuum
measurements on a single-cell structure, and the copper gasket pro-
vided suitable RF contact, and a vacuum pressure of 2.5 × 10−7 mbar
was also reached after 1 h of pumping with a turbo-molecular pump
without baking. After baking up to 120 ◦ C for 12 h, the vacuum
pressure with the acceptable value of 10−9 mbar was achieved. These
results motivated us to fabricate the RF gun structure with the new
clamping method without brazing. The manufacturing process of the
newly designed RF gun will begin soon.
In the last section, we investigated using a high-current and low-
emittance DC triode electron gun to be mounted on the RF gun as
an alternative cathode assembly. We used the previously published 3D
laser-scanned geometry of a commercial triode electron gun manufac-
tured by ALTAIR Technologies, Inc. (part number 102414 [15]) and
simulated our proposed scheme. The output electron bunch with the
proposed alternative cathode assembly has complementary specifica-
tions to the previous simulations, although for a lower bunch charge
with slightly higher transverse emittance. The adequate results of these
simulations confirm the suitability of the alternative cathode assembly,
Fig. 15. Model of the triode electron gun as the cathode assembly of the 𝜋 mode RF and the research and development will continue.
gun.
are changed into a folded shape in Fig. 16. These results are promising
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal rela-
for continuing research and development on this alternative design for
tionships which may be considered as potential competing interests:
the cathode assembly.
Sasan Ahmadiannamin reports administrative support and equipment,
drugs, or supplies were provided by Iranian Light Source Facility.
4. Summary and conclusions Sasan Ahmadiannamin reports a relationship with Iranian Light Source
Facility that includes: employment.
This paper explores a new design for the ILSF thermionic RF elec-
tron gun, intending to eliminate the vacuum brazing process and
Data availability
easier fabrication of the structure. This procedure was extended for
more straightforward and cheaper production of standing wave and
Data will be made available on request.
travelling wave RF cavities for many applications that will be published
in further articles. This new method is based on clamping the parts
together utilizing special copper gaskets that simultaneously implement Acknowledgements
RF contact and vacuum seal. The microwave and beam dynamics
calculations of this newly designed RF gun are described in detail in The authors would like to thank Dr. M. Mohammadi Najafabadi,
the first section of this article, and the results are compared with the director of ILSF, for his help and support during this project. We also
previous brazing-based design. The output electron bunch in the second thank Dr. M. Dayyani Kelisani for his help in the RF design process.
Fig. 16. The momentum distribution (left) and transverse phase space distribution (right) of the electron bunch produced by the 𝜋 mode RF gun with the alternative cathode
assembly after filtering low-energy electrons in the alpha magnet.
7
A. Sadeghipanah, S. Ahmadiannamin, M. Ostovar et al. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 1051 (2023) 168198
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