HL-LHC Crab Cavity HOM Couplers: Challenges and Results

To compensate for the detrimental effect of the crossing angle on luminosity production in the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider’s (HL-LHC) interaction regions, superconducting crab cavities (vertical and horizontal) will be installed at the two interaction regions of the ATLAS and CMS experiments. Both cavity designs use multiple Higher Order Mode (HOM) couplers to reduce beam instabilities and heat loads caused by the very high proton current in the HL-LHC. The conceptual RF designs of the HOM couplers are firstly presented, evaluating HOM damping requirements, fundamental mode rejection and dynamic heat load constraints. A special focus is given to the coupler’s characteristic impedance (Z0), to improve the robustness during transport and operation. Following this, RF measurements of the HOM couplers before installation, installed on the superconducting cavities and with a circulating proton beam are detailed, analysing deviations from the simulated cases.