Dark current studies on a normal-conducting high-brightness very-high-frequency electron gun operating in continuous wave mode

We report on measurements and analysis of a field-emitted electron current in the very-high-frequency (VHF) gun, a room temperature rf gun operating at high field and continuous wave (CW) mode at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The VHF gun is the core of the Advanced Photo-injector Experiment (APEX) at LBNL, geared toward the development of an injector for driving the next generation of high average power x-ray free electron lasers. High accelerating fields at the cathode are necessary for the high-brightness performance of an electron gun. When coupled with CW operation, such fields can generate a significant amount of field-emitted electrons that can be transported downstream the accelerator forming the so-called ``dark current.'' Elevated levels of a dark current can cause radiation damage, increase the heat load in the downstream cryogenic systems, and ultimately limit the overall performance and reliability of the facility. We performed systematic measurements that allowed us to characterize the field emission from the VHF gun, determine the location of the main emitters, and define an effective strategy to reduce and control the level of dark current at APEX. Furthermore, the energy spectra of isolated sources have been measured. A simple model for energy data analysis was developed that allows one to extract information on the emitter from a single energy distribution measurement.