C-band accelerators have been of particular interest in recent years due to their ability to provide high gradients and transport high charge beams for applications such as colliders and medical technologies. New Advancements in high gradient technologies that can suppress the breakdown rate in a particular structure by using distributed coupling, cryogenic cooling, and copper alloys. Previous work has shown each of these separately to significantly improve the maximum gradient. In this work, for the first time, we will combine all three methods in an ultra-high gradient structure and benchmark the difference between Cu and CuAg. The exact same structures were previously tested at room temperature and showed gradients in excess of 200 MeV/m and a 20% improvement in the CuAg version over its pure Cu counterpart [1]. These structures are now tested at 77K simultaneously. They were found to perform similarly due to the presence of significant beam loading. Taking beam loading into account, a maximum achievable gradient of 200 MeV/m achieved for a 1 µs pulse at an input power of 5 MW into each cavity with a breakdown rate of 1e-1 breakdown/pulse/m.

Future electron accelerator applications such as x-ray free electron lasers and ultrafast electron diffraction are dependent on significantly increasing beam brightness. We have designed and produced a new CrYogenic Brightness-Optimized Radiofrequency Gun (CYBORG) for use in a new beamline at UCLA to study the brightness improvements achievable in this novel low temperature high gradient accelerating environment. We are currently in the process of commissioning the photogun for operation with peak cathode fields in excess of 120 MV/m. We report here on the status of conditioning the photogun and report on dark current measurements and maximum field achieved thus far.

In the framework of EuPRAXIA@SPARC_LAB project, we are studying possible solutions to upgrade and measure the amplitude and phase stability of the RF accelerating fields generated by a klystron. These studies concern the C- and X- band klystrons installed in the LNF infrastructures. In particular, we will present our work on a fast phase feedback around the C-band power station (50 MW klystron and solid state modulator) installed at SPARC_LAB. We are trying to push the timing jitter below the standard limit of such systems (few tens of fs RMS). A second topic is the study of the jitter of the X-band power station (50 MW klystron and solid state modulator) installed in the TEX facility. Precise measurements on amplitude and phase of this system will be reported at different positions both upstream (LLRF and pre-amp) and downstream (waveguides and prototype structure) the klystron.

In anticipation of the Eupraxia@SPARC_LAB project at the INFN Frascati National Laboratories, an intensive testing and validation activity for the X-band RF system has commenced at the TEX test facility. The Eupraxia@SPARC_LAB project entails the development of a Free-Electron Laser (FEL) radiation source with a 1 GeV Linac based on plasma acceleration and an X-band radiofrequency (RF) booster. The booster is composed of 16 high-gradient accelerating structures working at 11.994GHz. All radiofrequency components comprising the basic module of the booster, from the power source to the structure, must undergo testing at nominal parameters and power levels to verify their reliability. For this reason, since 2021, several experimental runs have been conducted to test various components in X-band technology at the TEX facility. This paper presents the results obtained thus far from the different experimental runs, and it also outlines the future upgrade of the facility, which will enhance testing capabilities and the future prospects of the facility itself.

The Advanced Photons Source (APS) storage ring (SR) underwent an upgrade to the multi-bend achromat (MBA) lattice recently. As part of the upgrade, four out of the sixteen Radio Frequency (RF) cavities were removed from the storage ring. The remaining twelve cavities were left in place during the entire upgrade process and restored to full operating power to support beam commissioning once the installation activities were completed. This paper provides details on the planning and preparations made to preserve the cavity integrity during the installation period, challenges faced while restoring the cavities and how the cavity power coupler beta values were determined.

The Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is in the process of acquiring solid state amplifiers (SSA) from R&K Limited to replace four 1MW klystron rf systems that provide rf power to the storage ring cavities. This project is necessary primarily due to klystron obsolescence. Based on present needs for the APS Upgrade, twelve 160kW SS rf amplifier systems will be required to replace the legacy klystrons. Each of the 352-MHz SSA systems consist of a rack-mounted control unit, two 85kW amplifier cabinets, four 48-way coaxial combiners, and a single 4-way waveguide final combiner. The system is designed with particular attention to reliability and redundancy to help ensure high reliability metrics for the APS-U rf system.

Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) relies on 44 klystron modulator systems to feed the accelerating cavities and produce proton beam of 800 MeV. This paper focuses on the new VA-862A1 86kV 1.25 MW klystron units and aims to compare their performance with previously purchased units. Service hours for each klystron unit was used as the primary metric in the analysis and records from various sources cross-corroborated to confirm recorded information. Factors such as prior repair/rebuilds, factory acceptance tests and runtime notes were carefully inspected to provide a comprehensive view of the klystron performance during analysis. Klystron units currently being used in the LINAC were surveyed along with failed units and analysis performed to predict the next failure. The frequency and cause of failure was also compared with historical performance and failure data and results utilized for LANSCE SCCL performance optimization.

The National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) has developed a 300 kW solid-state amplifier. This 300 kW solid-state amplifier RF transmitter has been operating continuously since August 2023, consistently delivering an output of 250 kW RF power during user beam time at 500 mA. This report describes the performance of the solid-state amplifier RF transmitter during this period, module failure rates, and specific instances of malfunction.

Currently, radiofrequency (RF) power to the Argonne Advanced Photon Source (APS) storage ring and Booster cavities is provided by several klystrons. APS is in the process of replacing the storage ring klystrons with clusters of 160 kW solid state amplifier (SSA) gradually. It is required to keep most of the existing equipment racks, klystrons and cable trays for smooth operation and transition until the SSA upgrade commissioning. The replaced klystrons may be kept for future RF power backup to the sectors waiting for SSA upgrade. The following post challenges to the waveguide installation: confined space of the waveguide lines removal and installation, finding space for additional new equipment racks, SSA racks, power combiners, AC power distribution, water cooling systems and new cable trays. The goal of this study is to generate a new waveguide layout design with enough space clearance for installation, operation, repairing of SSA plus AC distribution, water cooling system and all safety requirements. This work presents the study of waveguide lines layout modification for storage ring cavities and the result of this study will be a guideline of waveguide construction for APS storage ring SSA upgrade as well as the installation of the system. A discussion of waveguide combiner vs. coax combiner is also presented.

This presentation will report on the status of assembling and commissioning of the Cathodes And Radio-frequency Interactions in Extremes (CARIE) C-band high gradient photoinjector test facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The construction of CARIE began in October of 2022. CARIE will house a high gradient copper RF photoinjector with a high quantum-efficiency cathode and produce an ultra-bright 250 pC electron beam accelerated to the energy of 7 MeV. The 50 MW 5.712 GHz Canon klystron will power the facility. The klystron was received and installed in fall of 2023. The WR187 waveguide line brings the power from the klystron into a concrete vault that is rated to provide radiation protection for an electron beam powers up to 20 kW. The first RF injector that was fabricated is made of copper and does not have cathode plugs. This injector will be commissioned to validate operation of the CARIE facility. The second injector that will accommodate cathode plugs and novel photocathodes was designed and will be fabricated. The status of the facility, the designs of the photoinjector and the beamline, and plans for photocathode testing will be presented.

An international collaboration between PSI and INFN-LNF has been undertaken with the aim of developing the next generation of high brightness electron sources. Through this collaboration, two unique high gradient RF photoguns that operate in the C-band frequency regime have been designed and realized. Concurrent to this, a new high power test stand at the Paul Scherrer Institut has been commissioned to test these novel devices. Here we report on the new test stand and the first results from the high-power testing of these devices.

RF photo-gun are the electron beam sources of FELs or Compton facilities. They are key components and, presently, the RF technology mostly used for these devices is the S band (3 GHz) with typical cathode peak fields of 80-120 MV/m and repetition rates lower than 100-120 Hz. An innovative C-Band (5.712 GHz) RF gun aiming at reaching cathode peak field larger than 160 MV/m, with repetition rates exceeding the 400 Hz, has been designed, realized and high power tested in the context of the European I.FAST and INFN Commission V projects. It is a 2.5 cell standing wave cavity with a four-port mode launcher, designed to operate with short RF pulses (300 ns). Its realization is based on the new brazed-free technology developed and successfully tested at INFN. In the paper, after a short overview of the design and RF gun capabilities, we illustrate the realization procedure and the results of the high power RF tests that have been done at the high power C band test facility at PSI (Switzerland).

Hefei Infrared Free-Electron Laser device (IR-FEL) is a user experimental device dedicated to energy chemistry research that can generate high brightness mid/far infrared lasers. It is driven by an S-band linear accelerator with a maximum electron energy of 60 MeV. The stability of the final output laser is determined by the energy stability and spread of the electron beam, and the Low-Level RF control system (LLRF) is opitimized to improve the energy stability of the electron beam. There are two klystrons in the linear accelerator of IR-FEL, and the periodic oscillation of out power output of the klytrons is existed (approximately ± 0.2%~2% for amplitude). The oscillation period of two klystrons are exchanged in the case of exchanging the filament power supplies of two klystrons. The pulse-to-pulse feedforward and in-pulse feedback algorithm are developed to compensate the periodic fluctuations of the output power of the klystrons, and the IQ demodulation is changed to the Non-IQ demodulation (13/3) to separate and suppress the odd harmonic. After the optimization, the stability of klystron output signal has been improved from 0.12%/0.07° (rms) to 0.04%/0.09° (rms).

High-power multi-beam klystrons represent a key component to amplify RF to generate the accelerating field of the superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities at European XFEL. Exchanging these high-power components takes time and effort, thus it is necessary to minimize maintenance and downtime and at the same time maximize the device's operation. In an attempt to explore the behavior of klystrons using machine learning, we completed a series of experiments on our klystrons to determine various operational modes and conduct feature extraction and dimensionality reduction to extract the most valuable information about a normal operation. To analyze recorded data we used state-of-the-art data-driven learning techniques and recognized the most promising components that might help us better understand klystron operational states and identify early on possible faults or anomalies.

Following the study progress on the FCC-ee radiofrequency systems (i.e. length of the cryomodules), general services infrastructure (i.e. electrical, cooling, ventilation), transport and handling volumes, and alignment requirements, the 3D integration evolved with a new configuration scenario. This paper describes the new proposal to locate the collider RF elements (400 MHz and 800 MHz cryomodules) at point H, and the booster RF elements (800 MHz cryomodules) at point L, without changing the 5.5 m inner diameter tunnel.

During last year a comprehensive R&D program on high-efficiency klystrons has been carried out in collaboration with industry. The first prototypes are being tested and experimental results are promising. The talk will describe the main results of this R&D focusing in the experimental ones.