AWA Facility

The AWA high intensity witness electron beam is generated by a photocathode RF gun, operating at 1.3GHz.

Special features of this linear accelerator include the available high charge per bunch and delivery of bunch trains.

The Argonne Cathode Test-stand (ACT) at AWA is a flexible and well-instrumented beamline dedicated to electron source research including field emission, photoemission, and other advanced emission mechanisms.

There are two Cs2Te deposition chambers at AWA. The first chamber is dedicated to the AWA drive beamline. It is a stainless steel UHV chamber with a base pressure of 2×10-10 Torr.

The high-field (> 80 MV/m) photoinjector has a large area, high quantum efficiency Cs2Te photocathode (diameter > 30 mm).

The 70 MeV Drive and the 15 MeV Witness linacs propagate in opposite directions, and come to a common area designated as the beamline switchyard where each linac can branch out into any of several beamlines where experiments are conducted.

L-band klystrons (1.3 GHz) provide RF power to the AWA electron guns and linac accelerating structures.

(Witness Gun)

Unique capabilities of the AWA laser system include a multi-lens array (MLA) and a pulse multisplitter.

The AWA facility maintains the world’s two highest-charge RF photocathode guns, both capable of 100 nC per bunch.