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At the radiation source ELBE a superconducting radio-frequency photoinjector (SRF gun) was developed and put into operation. Since 2010 the gun has delivered beam into the ELBE linac. A new driver laser with 13 MHz pulse repetition rate allows now to operate the free-electron lasers (FELs) with the SRF gun. This paper reports on the first lasing experiment with the far-infrared FEL at ELBE, describes the hardware, the electron beam parameters and the measurement of the FEL infrared radiation output.

Many future electron accelerator projects such as energy recovery linacs (ERLs), high power free electron lasers (FELs) and also some of the new collider designs rely on the development of particle sources which provide them with high average beam currents at high repetition rates, while maintaining a low emittance. Superconducting radio frequency (SRF) photo injectors represent a promising concept to give just that, offering the option of a continuous wave (CW) operation with high bunch charges. Nevertheless, emittance compensation for these electron guns, with the goal of reaching the same level as normal conducting sources, is an ongoing challenge. This paper is going to discuss several approaches for the 3-1/2-cell SRF gun installed at the accelerator facility ELBE at the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf including the installation of a superconducting solenoid within the injector’s cryostat and present the currently used method to determine the beam’s phase space.

The superconducting RF photoinjector SRF gun operating with a 31 2 cell niobium cavity and Cs2Te photocathodes is installed at the ELBE radiation center. The gun provides beams for ELBE as well as in a separate diagnostics beam line for beam parameter measurements. Since 2012 a new UV driver laser system developed by MBI has been installed for the SRF gun . It delivers CW or bust mode pulses with 13 MHz repetition rate or with reduced rates of 500, 200, and 100 kHz at an average UV power of about 1 W. The new laser allows the gun to serve as the driver for the infrared FELs at ELBE. In the first successful experiment a 250 amp; 956;A beam with 3.3 MeV from SRF gun was injected into ELBE, further accelerated in the ELBE superconducting linac modules and then guided to the U100 undulator. First lasing was achieved at the wavelength of 41 amp; 956;m. The spectrum, detuning curve and further parameters were measured

Superconducting RF photo guns are suitable candidates for electron injectors in future free-electron lasers and energy recovery linacs. For the radiation source ELBE an SRF gun was build and put into operation. During long-term tests, the operation of normal-conducting photocathodes in the superconducting cavity has been successfully demonstrated. At moderate average currents of some hundreds of μA the Cs2Te photocathodes possess excellent lifetime. The gun's acceleration gradient is the key parameters for beam emittance and the maximum achievable bunch charge of the gun. Therefore two new cavities with higher performance were developed, built and treated. The final tests of these cavities are ongoing. An upgraded cryomodule with an integrated superconducting solenoid was built.

As the first superconducting rf photo-injector (SRF gun) in practice, the FZD 3+1/2 cell SRF gun is successfully connected to the superconducting linac ELBE. This setting will improve the beam quality for ELBE users. It is the first example for an accelerator facility fully based on superconducting RF technology. For high average power FEL and ERL sources, the combination of SRF linac and SRF gun provides a new chance to produce beams of high average current and low emittance with relative low power consumption. The main parameters achieved from the present SRF gun are the final electron energy of 3 MeV, 16 μA average current, and rms transverse normalized emittances of 3 mm mrad at 77 pC bunch charge. A modified 3+1/2 cell niobium cavity has been fabricated and tested, which will increase the rf gradient in the gun and thus better the beam parameters further. In this paper the status of the integration of the SRF gun with the ELBE linac will be presented, and the latest results of the beam experiments will be discussed.