Speaker
Nicholas Shipman
(University of Manchester (GB))
Description
Obtaining a low breakdown rate in CLIC accelerating structures is a critical requirement for the successful operation of the proposed collider. To complement the RF study of breakdown phenomena the CERN DC spark systems were constructed. Recently system I has been vastly improved and can now operate at a repetition rate of 1kHz and is also able to monitor the electrode gap size. In this talk the latest improvements and results from system I will be presented. These will include the turn on time of the breakdown, the breakdown position within the pulse, the breakdown rate, the burning voltage and breakdown distribution statistics as well as how these parameters are affected by the electric field and gap size. Comparisons will also be made to results obtained from C-band and X-band RF tests and simulations.
