FUTURE LIGHT SOURCE BASED ON ENERGY RECOVERY LINAC IN JAPAN

After extensive discussions on the future light source of the Photon Factory at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), it has been concluded that a 5 GeV energy recovery linac (ERL) should be the most suitable candidate to foster cutting-edge experiments, as well as to support a large variety of user needs from VUV to X-rays. On the other hand, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), which has built a low energy (17 MeV) ERL, also proposed another 5-6 GeV ERL as a light source. These two institutes, with a participation of some members of the Institute for Solid State Physics (ISSP) of the University of Tokyo, agreed to promote an ERL-based next-generation synchrotron light source in Japan. Before constructing a 5 GeV ERL, it is necessary to develop several critical components, such as an electron gun and superconducting accelerating structures, and to prove their performance. To this end, we plan to construct a test ERL of 200-MeV class at the KEK site. An R&D team for the test ERL is going to be organized in collaboration with accelerator scientists from the other facilities, the UVSOR and the SPring-8.