Operational Experience From 8 Years of ELBE SRF-Gun II

At the electron accelerator for beams with high brilliance and low emittance (ELBE), the second version of a superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) photoinjector was brought into operation in 2014. After a period of commissioning, a gradual transfer to routine operation took place in 2017, so that now more than 1800h of user beam are generated every year. Since the commission, a total of 24 cathodes (2 Cu, 12 Mg, 10 Cs2Te) have been used, without observing serious cavity degradation. The contribution summarizes commissioning and operational experience of the last 8 years of gun operation, with special emphasis on SRF properties but also on specialties such as dark current and multipacting that are directly linked to the integration of a normal conducting cathode into the SRF cavity.