The elbe accelerator facility starts operation with the superconducting rf gun

As the first superconducting rf photo-injector (SRF gun) in practice, the FZD 3+1/2 cell SRF gun is successfully connected to the superconducting linac ELBE. This setting will improve the beam quality for ELBE users. It is the first example for an accelerator facility fully based on superconducting RF technology. For high average power FEL and ERL sources, the combination of SRF linac and SRF gun provides a new chance to produce beams of high average current and low emittance with relative low power consumption. The main parameters achieved from the present SRF gun are the final electron energy of 3 MeV, 16 μA average current, and rms transverse normalized emittances of 3 mm mrad at 77 pC bunch charge. A modified 3+1/2 cell niobium cavity has been fabricated and tested, which will increase the rf gradient in the gun and thus better the beam parameters further. In this paper the status of the integration of the SRF gun with the ELBE linac will be presented, and the latest results of the beam experiments will be discussed.