Low emittance photoinjectors

Photon colliders require high charge polarized electron beams with very low normalized emittances, possibly lower than the actual damping rings design goals. Recent analytical and numerical efforts in understanding beam dynamics in RF photoinjectors have raised again the question as to whether the performances of an RF electron gun based injector could be competitive with respect to a damping ring. As a matter of discussion we report in this paper the most recent results concerning low emittance photoinjector designs: the production of polarized electron beams by DC and/or RF guns is illustrated together with space charge compensation techniques and thermal emittance effects. New ideas concerning multi-gun injection system and generation of flat beams by RF gun are also discussed.