Proposal for Design and Test of a 352 MHz Spoke RF Source

More than a dozen of spoke resonators prototypes (SSR, DSR, TSR) have been constructed and tested worldwide. None have accelerated beam until now and the ESS LINAC will be the first accelerator to operate with spoke cavities. Experience with other types of superconducting cavities indicates that high-power test is vital for reliable operation of the cavity in an accelerator. Although characteristics of a bare cavity can be obtained in a low-power test some important features of a `dressed' cavity like the electroacoustic stability and tuning system can be studied only in a high-power test stand. The ESS LINAC is a pulsed machine and the Lorentz detuning originating from the electromagnetic pressure on the cavity walls is expected to be strong. The Lorentz force along with the cavity sensitivity to mechanical excitations at some resonant frequencies may lead to self-sustained mechanical vibrations which make cavity operation dicult. Practical experience shows that increasing the boundary stiness will decrease the static Lorentz force detuning but not necessarily the dynamic one. Therefore, the FREIA group at Uppsala University is building a high-power test stand able to study performance of the ESS spoke cavity at high power. The RF test stand will be able to drive the cavity not only in the self-excitation mode but also with closed RF loop and fixed frequency. The later technique will be used to reproduce the shape of the cavity voltage pulse as it is expected to be in the cavity operating in the ESS LINAC such that the cavity tuning compensation system will be tested under realistic conditions.