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A high-pulse-current injector followed by a short high-gradient X-band linac is considered as a driver for a compact Inverse Compton Scattering source. We show that using a high-power ultrashort pulse laser operating in burst mode and a Fabry-Pérot enhancement cavity, X-rays with flux values over 10¹³ ph/s and photon energies up to MeV are achievable. The resulting high-intensity and high-energy X-rays allow for various applications, including cancer therapy, tomography, and nuclear waste management. A preliminary conceptual design of such a compact ICS source is presented, together with simulations of the expected performance., Proceedings of the 31st International Linear Accelerator Conference, LINAC2022, Liverpool, UK

CompactLight (XLS) is an International Collaboration of 24 partners and 5 third parties, funded by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. The main goal of the project, which started in January 2018 with a duration of 36 months, is the design of an hard X-ray FEL facility beyond today’s state of the art, using the latest concepts for bright electron photo-injectors, high-gradient accelerating structures, and innovative short-period undulators. The specifications of the facility and the parameters of the future FEL are driven by the demands of potential users and the associated science cases. In this paper we will give an overview on the ongoing activities and the major results achieved until now., Proceedings of the 39th Free Electron Laser Conference, FEL2019, Hamburg, Germany

International audience; The H2020 CompactLight Project aims at designing the next generation of compact X-rays Free-Electron Lasers, relying on very high gradient accelerating structures (X-band, 12 GHz), the most advanced concepts for high brightness electron photo injectors, and innovative compact short-period undulators. Compared to existing facilities, the proposed facility will benefit from a lower electron beam energy, due to the enhanced undulators performance, and will be significantly more compact, with a smaller footprint, as a consequence of the lower energy and the high-gradient X-band structures. In addition, the whole infrastructure will also have a lower electrical power demand as well as lower construction and running costs.

Dark current is particularly relevant during operation in high-gradient linear accelerators. Resulting from the capture of field emitted electrons, dark current produces additional radiation that needs to be accounted for in experiments. In this paper, an analysis of dark current is presented for four accelerating structures that were tested and conditioned in CERN’s X-band test facility for CLIC. The dependence on power, and therefore on accelerating gradient, of the dark current signals is presented. The Fowler-Nordheim equation for field emission seems to be in accordance with the experimental data. Moreover, the analysis shows that the current intensity decreases as a function of time due to conditioning, but discrete jumps in the dark current signals are present, probably caused by breakdown events that change the emitters’ location and intensity., Proceedings of the 10th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2019, Melbourne, Australia

The high-gradient performance of an accelerating structure prototype for a medical proton linac is presented. The structure was designed and built using technology developed by the CLIC collaboration and the target application is the TULIP (Turning Linac for Proton therapy) proposal developed by the TERA foundation. The special feature of this design is to produce gradient of more than 50 MV /m in low-β accelerating structures (v/c=0.38). The structure was tested in an S-band test stand at CERN. During the tests, the structure reached over above 60 MV/m at 1.2 μs pulse length and breakdown rate of about 5x10⁻⁶ bpp. The results presented include ultimate performance, long term behaviour and measurements that can guide future optimization., Proceedings of the 9th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

An S-Band High-Gradient (HG) Radio Frequency (RF) laboratory is under construction and commissioning at IFIC. The purpose of the laboratory is to perform investigations of high-gradient phenomena and to develop normal-conducting RF technology, with special focus on RF systems for hadron-therapy. The layout of the facility is derived from the scheme of the Xbox-3 test facility at CERN* and uses medium peak-power (7.5 MW) and high repetition rate (400 Hz) klystrons, whose RF output is combined to drive two testing slots to the required power. The design and construction of the various components of the system started in 2016 and has been completed. The installation and commissioning of the laboratory is progressing, with first results expected before mid 2018. The technical characteristics of the different elements of the system and the commissioning status together with preliminary results are described. An S-band High-Gradient (HG) Radio Frequency (RF) laboratory is under construction and commissioning at IFIC. The purpose of the laboratory is to perform investigations of high-gradient phenomena and to develop normal-conducting RF technology, with special focus on RF systems for hadron-therapy. The layout of the facility is derived from the scheme of the Xbox-3 test facility at CERN [1] and uses medium peak-power (7.5 MW) and high repetition rate (400 Hz) klystrons, whose RF output is combined to drive two testing slots to the required power. The design and construction of the various components of the system started in 2016 and has been completed. The installation and commissioning of the laboratory is progressing, with first results expected before mid-2018. The technical characteristics of the different elements of the system and the commissioning status together with preliminary results are described.

We illustrate the RF design of the X-band linac for the upgrade of the SPARC_LAB facility at INFN-LNF (EuPRAXIA@SPARC_LAB). The structures are travelling wave (TW) cavities, working on the 2π/3 mode, fed by klystrons with pulse compressor systems. The tapering of the cells along the structure and the cell profiles have been optimized to maximize the effective shunt impedance keeping under control the maximum value of the modified Poynting vector, while the couplers have been designed to have a symmetric feeding and a reduced pulsed heating. In the paper we also present the RF power distribution layout of the accelerating module and a preliminary mechanical design., Proceedings of the 9th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

The IFIC High-Gradient (HG) Radio Frequency (RF) laboratory is designed to host a high-power infrastructure for testing HG S-band normal-conducting RF accelerating structures and has been under construction since 2016. The main objective of the facility is to develop HG S-band accelerating structures and to contribute to the study of HG phenomena. A particular focus is RF structures for medical hadron therapy applications. The design of the laboratory has been made through collaboration between the IFIC and the CLIC RF group at CERN. The layout is inspired by the scheme of the Xbox-3 test facility at CERN, and it has been adapted to S-band frequency. In this paper we describe the design and construction status of such a facility., Proceedings of the 8th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2017, Copenhagen, Denmark