Proposed Dark Current Studies at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility

A study of dark currents has been initiated at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility (AWA). Emission of dark current is closely related to a breakdown. Breakdown may include several factors such as local field enhancement, explosive electron emission, Ohmic heating, tensile stress produced by electric field, and others. The AWA is building a dedicated facility to test various models for breakdown mechanisms and to determine the roles of different factors in the breakdown. An imaging system is being put together to identify single emitters on the cathode surface. This will allow us to study dark current properties in the gun. We also plan to trigger breakdown events with a high-powered laser at various wavelengths (IR to UV). Another experimental idea follows from the recent work on a Schottky-enabled photoemission in an RF photoinjector that allows us to determine in situ the field enhancement factor on a cathode surface. Monitoring the field enhancement factor before and after can shed some light on a modification of metal surface after the breakdown