• A. Oppelt, K. Abrahamyan, G. Asova, J.W. Baehr, G. Dimitrov, U. Gensch, H.-J. Grabosch, J.H. Han, S. Khodyachykh, G. Klemz, M. Krasilnikov, S. Liu, V. Miltchev, B. Petrosyan, S. Riemann, L. Staykov, F. Stephan
  DESY Zeuthen, Zeuthen
• W. Ackermann, W.F.O. Muller, S. Schnepp, T. Weiland
  TEMF, Darmstadt
• D. Alesini, M. Boscolo, G. Di Pirro, M. Ferrario, D. Filippetto, L. Palumbo, C. Vicario
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
• V. Boccone
  Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin
• L. Catani, E. Chiadroni, A. Cianchi
  INFN-Roma II, Roma
• K. Floettmann, S. Schreiber
  DESY, Hamburg
• T. Garvey
  LAL, Orsay
• M.V. Hartrott, E. Jaeschke, D. Kraemer, D. Lipka, F. Marhauser, R. Richter
  BESSY GmbH, Berlin
• P. Michelato, L. Monaco, C. Pagani, D. Sertore
  INFN/LASA, Segrate (MI)
• V.V. Paramonov
  RAS/INR, Moscow
• N. Pavel
  Humboldt University Berlin, Institut für Physik, Berlin
• J.R. Roensch, J. Rossbach
  Uni HH, Hamburg
• W. Sandner, I. Will
  MBI, Berlin
• I. Tsakov
  INRNE, Sofia

Funding: This work has been partly supported by the European Community, contract numbers RII3-CT-2004-506008 and 011935, and by the 'Impuls- und Vernetzungsfonds" of the Helmholtz Association, contract number VH-FZ-05.

Since December 2004, the photo injector test facility at DESY in Zeuthen (PITZ) has been upgraded. A normal conducting copper booster cavity has been installed and the diagnostics beamline has been strongly modified. An extended water cooling system has been installed and was successfully taken into operation. Actually, the new diagnostics elements are being commissioned. After the installation of the new 10 MW klystron in June/July, the gun can be conditioned towards higher average power, and the whole beamline including the booster will be taken into operation. First results from the commissioning phase including gun and booster conditioning are reported.

• L. Catani, E. Chiadroni, A. Cianchi
  INFN-Roma II, Roma
• M. Castellano, G. Di Pirro, D. Filippetto, C. Vicario
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
• M.V. Hartrott
  BESSY GmbH, Berlin
• M. Krasilnikov, A. Oppelt, F. Stephan
  DESY Zeuthen, Zeuthen

For the SPARC Project a novel diagnostic device, called "Emittance-meter", has been conceived and constructed to perform a detailed study of the emittance compensation process in the SPARC photo-injector and to optimize the RF-gun and the accelerator working point. It consists of a movable emittance measurement system, based on the 1D pepper-pot method, installed between two long bellows with the possibility to scan a region 1.5 m long downstream the RF-gun. The construction of the device was completed in the first part of this year and a series of laboratory tests, to evaluate its performances, were carried out in Spring 2005. At the beginning of the summer the complete system was moved to DESY at Zeuthen to be installed on the Photo Injector Test Facility PITZ. After the commissioning it will used for measurements of the PITZ electron beam in the framework of a collaboration between the SPARC and PITZ Projects aiming on studies and operations with photo injectors.