Low emittance design of the electron gun and the focusing channel of the Compact Linear Collider drive beam

For the Compact Linear Collider project at CERN, the power for the main linacs is extracted from a drive beam generated from a high current electron source. The design of the electron source and its subsequent focusing channel has a great impact on the beam dynamic considerations of the drive beam. We report the design of a thermionic electron source and the subsequent focusing channels with the goal of production of a high quality beam with a very small emittance.