Operation of a high-current drive beam electron gun prototype for the Compact Linear Collider

The high-average current electron gun low energy electrons from a thermionic cathode at high intensity is the prototype of the drive beam source for the Compact Linear Collider project. The electromagnetic design of the gun was done originally with 2D simulations to minimize the beam emittance for high-current operation (of the order of 8 A) at 140 keV. This paper reports on the first experimental measurements of beam extraction and transport. For the first time, 3D tracking simulations, which take into account precisely the cathode-grid geometry, have been compared with experimental optical transition radiation images of the beam, and we obtained impressive agreement. In addition, we have confirmed that the details of the cathode-grid assembly can impact significantly the beam emittance.