DC Breakdown Experiments with Iridium Cathode

Electrical breakdown occurring in rf accelerating structures is one of the major disruptions of the accelerated beam in CLIC. At CERN, as complements to rf facilities, DC-spark systems have been used to study breakdown properties of many candidate materials for making rf components. In this note, measurements of conditioning speed, breakdown field and field enhancement factor of iridium are presented comparing with previously tested materials. The average breakdown field after conditioning reached 238 MV/m, which places iridium next to copper. By comparison with results and properties of other metals, the low breakdown field of iridium could be explained by its face-centred-cubic crystal structure.