HOM damping properties of fundamental power couplers in the superconducting electron gun of the energy recovery LINAC at Brookhaven National Laboratory

Among the accelerator projects under construction at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is an R and D energy recovery LINAC (ERL) test facility. The ERL includes both a five-cell superconducting cavity as well as a superconducting, photoinjector electron gun. Because of the high-charge and high-current demands, effective higher-order mode (HOM) damping is essential, and several strategies are being pursued. Among these is the use of the fundamental power couplers as a means for damping some HOMs. Simulation studies have shown that the power couplers can play a substantial role in damping certain HOMs, and this presentation discusses these studies along with measurements.