KA-BAND TEST FACILITY FOR HIGH GRADIENT ACCELERATOR R&D

Achievement of high acceleration gradients in room- temperature structures requires basic studies of electrical and magnetic RF field limits at surfaces of conductors and dielectrics. Facilities for such studies at 11.4 GHz have been in use at KEK and SLAC; facilities for studies at 17.1 GHz are being developed at MIT and UMd; and studies at 30 GHz are being conducted at CERN using the CLIC drive beam to generate short intense RF pulses. Longer pulse studies at 34 GHz are to be carried out at a new test facility being established at the Yale Beam Physics Laboratory, built around the Yale/Omega-P 34 GHz magnicon. This high power amplifier, together with an available ensemble of components, should enable tests to be carried out at up to 9 MW in 1 μsec wide pulses at up to four output stations or, using a power combiner, at up to 35 MW in 1 μsec wide pulses at a single station. RF pulse compression is planned to be used to produce 100-200 MW, 100 nsec pulses or GW level 1 μsec wide pulses in a resonant ring. A number of experiments have been prepared to utilize multi-MW 34 GHz power for accelerator R&D, and users for future experiments are encouraged to express their interest.