High-Gradient Structures for Acceleration of Electrons by Short-Wave Pulses of Čerenkov Superradiance

Abstract

We consider the possibility of accelerating electrons by subnanosecond pulses of short-wave millimeter- wavelength Čerenkov superradiance (SR) in accelerating cells (with a side-feeding perpendicular to the electron beam motion) using numerical simulation. Such systems are of greatest interest when electrons already have a large amount of energy. It was assumed that the electron energy at the input to the structure is 3 MeV, which can be supplied by forming the initial electron bunches based on photoinjector systems. The calculations were performed with allowance for the achieved parameters of 150 GHz SR pulses (peak power 80 MW and duration 180 ps), as well as considering the breakdown field values determined in previous accelerator experiments with about 38-GHz SR pulses. The possibility of achieving electron energies at a level of 5.0–5.5 MeV in compact systems with accelerator gradients significantly exceeding the values achieved with use of long-wave klystrons is shown.