Author: Gaiffi, N.
Paper Title Page
TUPSO21 SwissFEL Cathode Load-lock System 259
 
  • R. Ganter, M. Bopp, N. Gaiffi, T. Le Quang, M. Pedrozzi, M. Schaer, T. Schietinger, L. Schulz, L. Stingelin, A. Trisorio
    PSI, Villigen PSI, Switzerland
 
  The SwissFEL electron source is an RF photo-injector in which the photo-cathode plug can be exchanged. Without load-lock, the cathode exchange takes about one week and cathode surface gets contaminated in the atmosphere during installation, leading to unpredictable quantum efficiency (QE) fluctuations. This motivated the construction of a load lock system to prepare and insert cathodes in the photo-injector. This load lock system consists of three parts: the preparation chamber, the transportable vacuum suitcase and the gun load lock chamber. This three parts system gives the possibility to prepare the cathode surface with methods like vacuum firing and plasma cleaning. The QE can be checked and the plug can be inserted in the gun without breaking vacuum. This will allow establishing an optimized a reproducible cathode preparation procedure. Since several cathodes can be loaded in advance, the exchange procedure reduces the machine shutdown to a few hours (shorter RF conditioning). The system is described and first experience with its use is reported.