Possible High Power Limitations From RF Pulsed Heating

One of the possible limitations to achieving high power in RF structures is damage to metal surfaces due to RF pulsed heating. Such damage may lead to degradation of RF performance. An experiment to study RF pulsed heating on copper has been developed at SLAC. The experiment consists of operating two pillbox cavities in the TE011 mode using a 50 MW X-Band klystron. The estimated temperature rise of the surface of copper is 350 °C for a power input of 20 MW to each cavity with a pulse length of 1.5 μs. Preliminary results from an experiment performed earlier are presented. A revised design for continued experiments is also presented along with relevant theory and calculations.