JLab, Newport News, Virginia, USA
This paper describes a new beam-based method of cavity energy gain calibration based on varying the cavity phase. This method can be fully automated and allows a larger range of momentum excursions during measurement than previous calibration approaches. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that a calibration precision of 2-3% could be realistically achieved using this method. During the commissioning of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility's (CEBAF) energy upgrade to 12 GeV, 876 measurements were performed on 375 of the 400 linac cavities in Fall 2015 and applied December 2015. Linac optics appears to be closer to design as a result. The resulting ensemble proved to be 2% over the value needed to get the desired energy in the arcs. Continued offline analysis of the data has allowed for error analysis and better understanding of the process.
