Vacuum System of the Compact Energy Recovery Linac

The compact Energy Recovery Linac (cERL), a test accelerator to establish important technologies demanded for future ERL-based light sources, was constructed in late 2013 at KEK. The accelerator was successfully commissioned in early 2014, and demonstrated beam circulation with energy recovery. In the cERL vacuum system, low-impedance vacuum components are required to circulate high-intensity, low-emittance and short-bunch electron beams. We therefore developed ultra-high-vacuum (UHV)-compatible flanges that can connect beam tubes seamlessly, and employed retractable beam monitors, namely, a movable Faraday cup and screen monitors. In most parts of the accelerator, pressures below 1x10(-7) Pa are required to mitigate beam-gas interactions. Particularly, near the photocathode electron gun and the superconducting (SC) cavities, pressures below 1x10-8 Pa are required. The beam tubes in the sections adjoining the SC cavities were coated with non-evaporable getter (NEG) materials, to reduce gas condensation on the cryosurfaces. During the accelerator commissioning, stray magnetic fields from the permanent magnets of some cold cathode gauges (CCGs) were identified as a source of the disturbance to the beam orbit. Magnetic shielding was specially designed as a remedy for this issue.