Field emission and rf breakdown in high-gradient room temperature linac structures

The purpose of this article is to serve as a tutorial review on the subject of field emission and rf breakdown in high-gradient room-temperature accelerator structures and associated devices. The need to understand and control these two phenomena has become increasingly important because of the prospect of using high-gradient structures in future linear colliders. Electron field emission creates so-called dark current which parasitically absorbs rf energy, causes radiation, backgrounds, and possibly wakefields; it seems to be the precursor of rf breakdown, possibly in combination with local outgassing and plasma formation. In turn, rf breakdown limits the operation of accelerators and can cause irreversible damage to their physical structures. Research on these topics is interesting and challenging because it involves a mixture of disciplines such as surface physics, metallurgy, fabrication technologies, microwaves, beam dynamics and plasmas. This review consists of four parts: (1) field emission under dc, enhanced and rf conditions; (2) experimental set-ups; (3) prebreakdown stage--dark current and radiation; (4) experimental observations and analysis of rf breakdown. The review ends with conclusions and an outline of work that remains to be done.