High gradient acceleration in a 17 GHz photocathode RF gun

A 17 GHz RF acceleration experiment is being constructed at MIT. The goal is to study particle acceleration at high field gradients and to generate high quality electron beams for potential applications in next generation linear colliders and free electron lasers. The peak accelerating gradient in the 1½ cavity RF gun is about 250 MV/m. The expected beam parameters, for operation with a photoemission cathode, are as follows: energy 2 MeV, normalized emittance 0.43 π mm-mrad, energy spread 0.18%, bunch charge 0.1 nC, and bunch length 0.39 Ps. The detailed experimental setup, including RF cavity, RF transport and coupling, vacuum system, laser and timing system are described.