A double-frequency rf gun for field emission

Abstract

Cold cathodes have attracted a lot of attention in the field of accelerators in recent years. While the development of suitable cold cathodes is in progress, attempts have been made to combine the cold cathode with a rf structure. Due to the strong dependence on the electric field, field emissions peak at the wave crest, which is not the best injection phase, during a rf cycle. To make the injection phase adjustable, a flexible double-frequency rf gun is designed. The addition of a 3rd-harmonic field to the fundamental one in the half cell will move the wave crest toward a better injection phase and make the initial bunch length shorter. The full cell is resonant at the fundamental frequency. Since only the half cell is resonant at two frequencies, the gun can be easily tuned. Simulations show that the time-dependent rf effects on the transverse and longitudinal phase spaces of the electron bunch can be reduced by choosing proper rf parameters and the space charge effects can be compensated for by using an external solenoid field. Therefore, the gun is able to provide low emittance, low energy spread and short electron bunches with high average current.