We report progress on the R&D program for electron-cooling of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). This electron cooler is designed to cool 100 GeV/nucleon at storage energy using 54 MeV electrons. The electron source will be a superconducting RF photocathode gun. The accelerator will be a superconducting energy recovery linac. The frequency of the accelerator is set at 703.75 MHz. The maximum electron bunch frequency is 9.38 MHz, with bunch charge of 20 nC. The R&D program has the following components: The photoinjector and its photocathode, the superconducting linac cavity, start-to-end beam dynamics with magnetized electrons, electron cooling calculations including benchmarking experiments and development of a large superconducting solenoid. The photoinjector and linac cavity are being incorporated into an energy recovery linac aimed at demonstrating ampere class current at about 20 MeV. A Zeroth Order Design Report is in an advanced draft state, and can be found on the web at http://www.agsrhichome.bnl.gov/eCool.

A key technology issue of ERL devices for high-power free-electron laser (FEL) and 4th generation light sources is the demonstration of reliable, high-brightness, high-power injector operation. Ongoing programs that target up to 1 Ampere injector performance at emittance values consistent with the requirements of these applications are described. We consider that there are three possible approaches that could deliver the required performance. The first is a DC photocathode gun and superconducting RF (SRF) booster cryomodule. Such a 750 MHz device is being integrated and will be tested up to 100 mA at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility beginning in 2007. The second approach is a high-current normal-conducting RF photoinjector. A 700 MHz gun will undergo thermal test in 2006 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which, if successful, when equipped with a suitable cathode, would be capable of 1 Ampere operation. The last option is an SRF gun. A half-cell 703 MHz SRF gun capable of delivering 1.0 Ampere will be tested to 0.5 Ampere at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 2006. The fabrication status, schedule and projected performance for each of these state-of-the-art injector programs will be presented.

Next generation ERL light-sources, high-energy electron coolers, high-power Free-Electron Lasers, powerful Compton X-ray sources and many other accelerators were made possible by the emerging technology of high-power, high-brightness electron beams. In order to get the anticipated performance level of ampere-class currents, many technological barriers are yet to be broken. BNL's Collider-Accelerator Department is pursuing some of these technologies for its electron cooling of RHIC application, as well as a possible future electron-hadron collider. We will describe work on CW, high-current and high-brightness electron beams. This will include a description of a superconducting, laser-photocathode RF gun and an accelerator cavity capable of producing low emittance (about 1 micron rms normalized) one nano-Coulomb bunches at currents of the order of one ampere average.