Thermal fatigue issues in high-gradient particle accelerators

The CLIC (Compact LInear Collider) is being studied at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) as a possible future high-energy (0.5-5 TeV centre-of-mass) physics facility. The current aim of the CLIC Study Team is to demonstrate the key feasibility issues before 2010. CLIC will be about 33 kilometers long and will be buried 100 meters underground. The main linac of CLIC consists of accelerating structures with the following demanding performance requirements: accelerating gradients of about 150 MV/m, power flows of about 200 MW, 1-2 ìm dimensional tolerances, an optical-quality surface finish and ultimately a low mass production cost. About 80% of CLIC's 33 kilometer length will be filled with main beam accelerating structures, which will require of the order of ten thousand tons of raw material and millions of individual parts. One of the main limiting factors of the main linac accelerating structures is the thermal fatigue due to the pulsed surface heating. The accelerating RFpower pulses heat up repeatedly the surface of the structures by RF currents. These thermal stress cycles are expected to cause a surface break-up by fatigue.