Low energy dark current collimation system in single-pass linacs

The dark current emitted from a surface of a radio frequency cavity may be a severe issue for the activation and the protection of the components of linear accelerators, if this current is lost in an uncontrolled manner. For a single-pass linac based on a photo-injector, we studied the possibility of using a collimator installed at low energy (below 10 MeV) to dump the maximum fraction of the dark current before it is transported along the linac. We developed and experimentally verified an emission and tracking model that we used to study and optimize the dark current mitigation at SwissFEL test facility. We optimized a collimator, which is expected to reduce by two orders of magnitude the transport of the dark current to the first compressor. We have also verified the effects of wakefield excited by the beam itself passing through the collimator at such a low energy, comparing the results of beam-based measurements with an analytical model.