3.9-Gigahertz module delivered for FLASH

The accelerator module arrives in hall 1...

A superconducting accelerator module produced at the American particle physics laboratory Fermilab arrived at DESY on 28 April. A lorry brought the 3-ton high tech module non-stop from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport where it had landed the night before. It was transported with a specially developed suspension system to avoid damaging vibrations. On Tuesday it was unloaded at DESY in hall 1 and released from its carrying device.

... and is lifted off its special carrying device.

The 3.9-Gigahertz module was developed and built at Fermilab within a collaboration agreement with DESY. The module operates at three times the frequency of a normal superconducting TESLA module, at the so-called third harmonic. Once installed, it will improve the electron beam dynamics at the free-electron laser FLASH, allowing a further enhancement of the laser light properties. The operating experience at FLASH will later be of great importance for the European X-ray free-electron laser XFEL, since there are plans to integrate a similar system.

The module is currently being checked and equipped with RF couplers. In autumn, it will be tested in the cryomodule test bench CMTB, which has to be converted especially for this purpose. Subsequently, it will be installed in the linear accelerator during the extensive FLASH upgrade starting later this year.

Chuck Grimm (left) and Elvin Harms from Fermilab check the vibration curves during the trip.