High gradient tests of an 88 MHz RF cavity for muon cooling

The scheme for a Muon Cooling channel developed at CERN in the frame of Neutrino Factory studies foresees the use of 44 and 88 MHz cavities operating at a real-estate gradient as high as 4 MV/m. To assess the feasibility of this scheme, including high-gradient operation at relatively low frequency and the production and handling of high RF peak powers, a test stand was assembled at CERN. It included an 88 MHz resonator reconstructed from a 114 MHz cavity previously used for lepton acceleration in the PS, a 2.5 MW final amplifier made out of an old linac unit improved and down-scaled in frequency, and a PS spare amplifier used as driver stage. After only 160 hours of conditioning the cavity passed the 4 MV/m level, with local peak surface field in the gap exceeding 25 MV/m (2.4 times the Kilpatrick limit). The gradient was limited by the amplifier power, the maximum RF peak output power achieved during the tests being 2.65 MW. This paper presents the results of the tests, including an analysis of field emission from the test cavity, and compares the results with the experience in conditioning ion linac RF cavities at CERN.