Analysis and active compensation of microphonics in continuous wave narrow-bandwidth superconducting cavities

Many proposals for next generation light sources based on single pass free electron lasers or energy recovery linac facilities require a continuous wave (cw) driven superconducting linac. The effective beam loading in such machines is very small and in principle the cavities can be operated at a bandwidth of a few Hz and with less than a few kW of rf power. However, a power reserve is required to ensure field stability. A major error source is the mechanical microphonics detuning of the niobium cavities. To understand the influence of cavity detuning on longitudinal beam stability, a measurement program has been started at the horizontal cavity test facility HoBiCaT at HZB to study TESLA-type cavities. The microphonics detuning spectral content, peak detuning values, and the driving terms for these mechanical oscillations have been analyzed. In combination with the characterization of cw-adapted fast tuning systems based on the piezoelectric effect this information has been used to design a detuning compensation algorithm. It has been shown that a compensation factor between 2–7 is achievable, reducing the typical detuning of 2–3 Hz rms to below 0.5 Hz rms. These results were included in rf-control simulations of the cavities, and it was demonstrated that a phase stability below 0.02° can be achieved.