An RF photoinjector capable of producing high continuous average current with low emittance and energy spread is a key enabling technology for high power CW FEL. The design of a 2.5-cell, p-mode, 700-MHz normal-conducting RF photoinjector cavity with magnetic emittance compensation is completed. With average gradients of 7, 7, and 5 MV/m in its three accelerating cells, the photoinjector will produce a 2.5-MeV electron beam with 3-nC charge per bunch and transverse rms emittance below 7 mm-mrad. Electromagnetic modeling has been used extensively to optimize ridge-loaded tapered waveguides and RF couplers, and led to a new, improved coupler iris design. The results, combined with a thermal and stress analysis, show that the challenging problem of cavity cooling can be successfully solved. Fabrication of a demo 100-mA (at 35 MHz bunch repetition rate) photoinjector is underway. The design is scalable to higher average currents by increasing the electron bunch repetition rate, and provides a path to a MW-class amplifier FEL.


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