New features of the MAX IV thermionic pre-injector

The MAX IV facility in Lund, Sweden consists of two storage rings for production of synchrotron radiation. The smaller 1.5 GeV ring is presently under construction, while the larger 3 GeV ring is being commissioned. Both rings will be operating with top-up injections from a full-energy injector. During injection, the electron beam is first delivered to the main injector from a thermionic pre-injector which consists of a thermionic RF gun, a chopper system, and an energy filter. In order to reduce losses of high-energy electrons along the injector and in the rings, the electron beam provided by the thermionic pre-injector should have the correct time structure and energy distribution. In this paper, the design of the MAX IV thermionic pre-injector with all its sub components is presented. The electron beam delivered by the pre-injector and its dependence on parameters such as optics, cathode temperature, and RF power are studied. Measurements are here compared with simulation results obtained by particle tracking and electromagnetic codes. The chopper system is described in detail, and different driving schemes that optimize the injection efficiency for the two storage rings are investigated. During operation, it was discovered that the structure of the beam delivered by the gun is affected by mode beating between the accelerating and a low-order mode. This mode beating is also studied in detail. Finally, initial measurements of the electron beam delivered to the 3 GeV ring during commissioning are presented.