Progress towards the CLIC Feasibility Demonstration in CTF3

The objective of the CLIC Test Facility CTF3 is to demonstrate the key feasibility issues of the CLIC two-beam technology: the efficient generation of a very high current drive beam and its stable deceleration in 12 GHz resonant structures, to produce high-power RF pulses and accelerate the main beam with an accelerating gradient of 100 MV/m. The construction and commissioning of CTF3 has taken place in stages from 2003. Many milestones had already been reached, including the first demonstration at the end of 2009 of a factor 2 x 4 re-combination of the initial drive beam pulse, thus reaching a beam current of 25 A. In this paper we summarise the commissioning highlights and the issues already validated at the earlier stages. We then show and discuss the latest results obtained, in view of the completion of the CLIC feasibility demonstration due for the end of 2010.
Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan