Development of the superconducting rf 2-cell cavity for cERL injector at KEK

An injector cryomodule for the compact energy recovery linac (cERL) is under development at KEK. This injector cryomodule has 3 L-band 2-cell superconducting rf cavities. The cERL is required to accelerate a 10-mA CW electron beam to 5 MeV. The required accelerating gradient per cavity is 7.5–12.5 MV/m at ∼30 kW input power to the cavity and the beam. The operational frequency is 1300 MHz at 2 K and the mode of operation is CW. In this application, the critical hardware components are not the cavities, but the rf input couplers and higher-order-mode (HOM) dampers. Initially, a TESLA-style coaxial HOM coupler was chosen for HOM damping of the injector cavities. However, this HOM coupler had a heating problem at low gradients (a few MV/m) in CW operation. The components heated in the accelerating mode were the HOM body and the feedthrough that extracts HOM power from the cavity. To control the heating problem, a new HOM coupler was designed based on a TESLA-style coaxial HOM coupler, and the feedthrough was also modified based on a Kyocera N-R type connector to have better thermal conductivity. A prototype 2-cell cavity and 3 other 2-cell cavities with 5 new HOM couplers for actual operation were fabricated through May 2011. Vertical tests of these cavities were carried out after standard surface preparation at the KEK Superconducting Accelerator Test Facility (KEK-STF) through March 2012. The accelerating gradient achieved exceeded 50 MV/m without quenching during the vertical test using the prototype 2-cell cavity and feedthroughs. The magnetic field at the cell equator was 2127 Oe. Three 2-cell cavities passing the criteria of the High Pressure Gas Safety Institute of Japan exceeded 25 MV/m without field emissions. The cavities with the best performance were prepared in March 2012 for the cERL injector. The designs of the HOM couplers and feedthroughs and the results of the vertical tests to evaluate their performance are reported here.