Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This report contains a summary of the R & D activities at LBNL on RF cavities for the NLC damping rings during fiscal year 19999. These activities include the optimization of the RF design for both efficiency and damping of higher-order (HOMs), by systematic study of the cavity profile, the effect of the beam pipe diameter, nosecone angle and gap, the cross section and position of the HOM damping waveguides and the coupler. The effect of the shape of the HOM waveguides and their intersection with the cavity wall on the local surface heating is also an important factor, since it determines the highest stresses in the cavity body. This was taken into account during the optimization so that the stresses could be reduced at the same time as the HOP damping was improved over previous designs. A new method of calculating the RF heating was employed, using a recently released high frequency electromagnetic element in ANSYS. This greatly facilitates the thermal and stress analysis of the design and fabrication methods have been developed with the goals of lower stresses, fewer parts and simpler assembly compared to previous designs. This should result in substantial cost savings. Preliminary designs are described for the cavity ancillary components including the RF window, HOM loads, and tuners. A preliminary manufacturing plan is included, with an initial estimate of the resource requirements. Other cavity options are discussed which might be desirable to either lower the R/Q, for reduced transient response, or lower the residual HOM impedance to reduce coupled-bunch growth rates further still.