Recent Advancements of RF Guns

High-brightness, high-current electron beams are the main requirement for fourth generation light sources such as free-electron lasers (FELs), energy recovery Linacs (ERLs) and high-energy linear colliders. The most successful device for producing such beams is the Radio-Frequency (RF) photoinjector that has been undergoing a constant evolution over the past nearly 30 years towards the production of ever-lower beam emittances and higher currents. The on-going progress in the technology of higher quality materials as well as the enhanced quality of laser pulse shaping have allowed huge improvements in the generation of higher-quality electron beams. Here, it is presented an overview of recent advancements and future perspectives of RF photoinjectors for a fifth generation light source.