RF Synchronization and Distribution for AWAKE at CERN

The Advanced Wakefield Experiment at CERN (AWAKE) requires two particle beams and a high power laser pulse to arrive simultaneously in a rubidium plasma cell. A proton bunch from the SPS extracted about once every 30 seconds must be synchronised with the AWAKE laser and the electron beam pulsing at a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The latter is directly generated using a photocathode triggered by part of the laser light, but the exact time of arrival in the plasma cell still depends on the phase of the RF in the accelerating structure. Each beam requires RF signals at characteristic frequencies: 6 GHz, 88.2 MHz and 10 Hz for the synchronisation of the laser pulse, 400.8 MHz and 8.7 kHz for the SPS, as well as 3 GHz to drive the accelerating structure of the electron beam. A low-level RF system has been designed to generate all signals derived from a common reference. Additionally precision triggers, synchronous with the arrival of the beams, will be distributed to beam instrumentation equipment. To suppress delay drifts of the several kilometer long optical fibres between AWAKE and the SPS RF systems, a compensated fibre link is being developed.