RECENT RESULTS AND PERSPECTIVES OF THE LOW EMITTANCE PHOTO INJECTOR AT PITZ

The Photo Injector Test Facility at Zeuthen (PITZ) was built to study the production of minimum transverse emittance electron beams for Free Electron Lasers and future Linear Colliders. Until November 2003, the electron beam from the rf gun has been fully characterized at PITZ. For a bunch charge of 1 nC a minimum normalized projected beam emittance of 1.5 π mm mrad in the vertical plane and a minimum geometrical average of both transverse planes of 1.7 π mm mrad have been achieved. This fulfills the requirements of the VUV-FEL at DESY. In this contribution, an overview of the measured electron beam and high duty cycle rf parameters including transverse emittance, thermal emittance, bunch length, momentum, and momentum spread will be given. In addition, planned major upgrades and first results towards fulfilling the even more challenging requirements for the European XFEL will be discussed. This includes measurements with increased average and peak rf power and the improvement of the transverse laser beam profile.