The advantages of contemporary particle injectors are high bunch charges and good beam quality in the case of normal conducting RF guns and increased repetition rates in the one of DC injectors. The technological edge of the concept of superconducting radio frequency injectors is to combine the strengths of both these sides. As many future accelerator concepts, such as energy recovery linacs, high power free electron lasers and certain collider designs, demand particle sources with high bunch charges and high repetition rates combined, applying the superconductivity of the accelerator modules to the injector itself is the next logical step. However, emittance compensation — the cornerstone for high beam quality — in case of a superconducting injector is much more challenging than in the normal conducting one. The use of simple electromagnets generating a solenoid field around the gun’s resonator interferes with its superconducting state. Hence, it requires novel and sophisticated techniques to maintain the high energy gain inside the gun cavity, while at the same time alleviating the detrimental fast transverse emittance growth of the bunch. In the case of the ELBE accelerator at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, a superconducting electron accelerator provides beam for several independent beamlines in continuous wave mode. The applications include IR to THz free electron lasers, neutron and positron generation, to Thompson backscattering with an inhouse TW laser, and hence, call for a flexible CW injector. Therefore, the development of a 3.5 cell superconducting electron gun was initiated in 1997. The focus of this thesis lies on three approaches of transverse emittance compensation for this photoinjector: RF focusing, the installation of a superconducting solenoid close to the cavity’s exit, and the introduction of a transverse electrical mode of the RF field in the resonator. All three methods are described in theory, examined by numerical simulation, and experimentally reviewed in the particular case of the ELBE SRF Gun II at HZDR and a copy of its niobium resonator at Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory, Newport News, VA, USA.

The advantages of contemporary particle injectors are high bunch charges and good beam quality in the case of normal conducting RF guns and increased repetition rates in the one of DC injectors. The technological edge of the concept of superconducting radio frequency injectors is to combine the strengths of both these sides. As many future accelerator concepts, such as energy recovery linacs, high power free electron lasers and certain collider designs, demand particle sources with high bunch charges and high repetition rates combined, applying the superconductivity of the accelerator modules to the injector itself is the next logical step. However, emittance compensation — the cornerstone for high beam quality — in case of a superconducting injector is much more challenging than in the normal conducting one. The use of simple electromagnets generating a solenoid field around the gun’s resonator interferes with its superconducting state. Hence, it requires novel and sophisticated techniques to maintain the high energy gain inside the gun cavity, while at the same time alleviating the detrimental fast transverse emittance growth of the bunch. In the case of the ELBE accelerator at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, a superconducting electron accelerator provides beam for several independent beamlines in continuous wave mode. The applications include IR to THz free electron lasers, neutron and positron generation, to Thompson backscattering with an inhouse TW laser, and hence, call for a flexible CW injector. Therefore, the development of a 3.5 cell superconducting electron gun was initiated in 1997. The focus of this thesis lies on three approaches of transverse emittance compensation for this photoinjector: RF focusing, the installation of a superconducting solenoid close to the cavity’s exit, and the introduction of a transverse electrical mode of the RF field in the resonator. All three methods are described in theory, examined by numerical simulation, and experimentally reviewed in the particular case of the ELBE SRF Gun II at HZDR and a copy of its niobium resonator at Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory, Newport News, VA, USA.

This work gives insight in some key aspects for the understanding of the origin of high-temperature superconductivity in the newly discovered class of iron-based materials. In particular, thermodynamic methods, such as SQUID magnetometry, specific heat and dilatometry were used, in order to (i) assess the evolution of electronic correlations in a series of transition metal substitutions of the well-known BaFe2As2 as a function of 3d band filling and (ii) to re-investigate the phase diagram of Co-doped LaFeAsO on single crystals, with particular interest in the interplay between the nematic/magnetic phase of the parent compound and superconductivity induced by in-plane electron doping. In the first part of this work, the Sommerfeld coefficient (γ_exp) was extracted from the low temperature specific heat data and compared with the theoretical values obtained by band theory calculations, in order to obtain the mass enhancement (m∗/mb) in the series BaT2As2 (T = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu). The results clearly show an overall decrease of the electronic correlations while departing from the half-filled (3d5) to the fully filled configuration (3d10), thus suggesting a highly correlated 3d5 state. The evolution of electronic correlations as a function of 3d band filling for n > 5 is in agreement with previous theoretical calculations, underlining the importance of Hund’s coupling in describing the normal-state properties of iron-based superconductors. In addition, it was found that the decrease in m∗/mb for n > 5 follows an increase of the crystal field splitting (Δ), determined by the progressive distortion of the As-T-As angle (α_bond) from the ideal tetrahedral environment. This study reveals a complex interplay between electronic correlations, band filling and crystal structure in determining the physical properties of 122 systems. In the second part, the phase diagram of Co-doped LaFeAsO was re-investigated using single crystals by thermodynamic methods. From magnetic susceptibility studies we track the doping evolution of the antiferromagnetic phase, revealing a continuous decrease of T_N up to 5% Co doping. In order to study the evolution of the so-called nematic phase, the temperature dependence of the length changes along the a and b orthorhombic directions, ΔL/L_0, was determined by high-resolution capacitance dilatometry. The results clearly show a gradual reduction of the orthorhombic distortion δ and of T_S with increasing Co content up to 4.5%, while it is completely suppressed for 7.5% Co. Bulk superconductivity with T_c = 10.5 K was found in a small doping region around 6% Co content, while both T_c and the superconducting volume fraction rapidly drop in the neighbouring doping regime. Ultimately, no microscopic coexistence between the superconducting and magnetic phases can be assessed within our resolution limit, in sharp contrast with other iron-pnictide families, e.g., electron- and hole-doped BaFe2As2.