Pulsed DC High Field Measurements of Irradiated and Non-Irradiated Electrodes of Different Materials

Beam loss occurs in Radio Frequency Quadrupoles (RFQ), and has been observed in the H⁻ linear accelerator Linac4 (L4) at CERN. To determine if beam loss can induce breakdowns, and to compare the robustness of different materials, tests have been done using pulsed high-voltage DC systems. Electrical breakdown phenomena and conditioning processes have been studied using these systems. Cathodes of different materials were irradiated with 1.2x10¹⁹ H⁻ p/cm², the estimated beam loss of the L4 RFQ over 10 days. The irradiated electrodes were installed in a system to observe if the irradiated area coincided with the breakdown locations, with pulsing parameters similar to the RFQ. Tests of irradiated and non-irradiated electrodes of the same material were done for comparison. The main difference observed was an increase in the number of breakdowns during the initial conditioning that returned to non-irradiated sample values with further running. Visual observations after irradiation show the beam centre and a halo the same diameter of the beam pipe. Breakdown clusters occur in the centre and halo regions, suggesting irradiation is not the only factor determining the breakdown probability.