Field emission and rf breakdown in copper linac structures

This paper presents a status report on rf field emission and high-gradient breakdown studies in linac structures at SLAC. The motivation behind these studies, begun in 1984, is to determine the maximum accelerating field gradients that could be used safely in future e± colliders, to contribute to the basic understanding of the rf breakdown mechanism, and to discover if special surface treatments might make it possible to shorten the time needed for rf processing and to supersede the field limits presently reachable in room temperature copper structures. Both theoretical ideas and experimental results are discussed. 8 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab