HOM damped cavities for BESSY II

It’s always a great moment when something that’s been in the works for a long time comes together.

This week, we completed frequency tuning on the first 1500 MHz higher-order mode (HOM) damped cavity for the upgrade of Berlin‘s synchrotron light source BESSY II — with our customer Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin joining us for the milestone.

So what’s the role of these cavities?
They’re used to increase the bunch length of the electron bunches in the storage ring. And why does that matter? Longer bunches mean:

improved beam lifetime

enhanced beam quality

greater stability

Nice, right?

We’re currently manufacturing 10 of these HOM-damped cavities:

4 for the HZB BESSY-II project

1 for the PTB Berlin Metrology Lightsource

5 for the CELLS ALBA project

All are scheduled for delivery in 2025.