Electron-Ion colliders including the medium energy electron ion collider, (MEIC) proposed by JLAB requires electron cooling to meet beam brightness requirements. Present electron gun technology limits the combination of beam current and beam energy that can be delivered. New technology is required to produce high current low energy spread electrons. General statement of how this problem is being addressed: AES proposes to develop an integral superconducting cavity pair with a gridded thermionic cathode to produce high current with very low energy spread. The SRF cavity pair will be independently powered with phase and field amplitudes optimized to minimize energy spread. What is to be done in Phase I: RF and beam dynamics will be performed to determine the optimum phase and field level of each SRF cavity. Thermal analysis will be run with the gridded thermionic cathode to determine cooling requirements. A preliminary gridded cathode design will be developed to minimize heat load and integrate with the SRF cavity. Commercial Applications and Other
Benefits: Electron-Ion colliders throughout the world, future advanced light sources and other high brightness accelerator facilities that require high power low energy spread electrons would benefit from this high performance electron injector.
