Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

At the radiation source ELBE an SRF gun has been developed and put into operation in 2007. The gun has a 3 ½ cell niobium cavity for 1.3 GHz and uses normal-conducting photo cathodes. Since 2010 the gun has delivered beam into the ELBE linac. Recently a new driver laser with 13 MHz pulse repetition rate allows us to operate the IR free-electron lasers (FEL) with the SRF gun. The successful operation of the SRF gun confirms the general design with an elliptical cavity, superconducting RF choke filter, and normal-conducting photocathodes as well as the proper design of most of the subsystems like couplers and tuners. This contribution presents important experiences out of 6 years of operating the Rossendorf SRF gun.