Compact dc high-voltage photoelectron guns are able to meet the sophisticated demands of high-current applications such as energy recovery linacs. A main design parameter for such sources is the electric field strength, which depends on the electrode geometry and is limited by the field emission threshold of the electrode material. In order to minimize the maximum field strength for optimal gun operation, isogeometric analysis (IGA) can be used to exploit the axisymmetric geometry and describe its cross section by nonuniform rational B-splines, the control points of which are the parameters to be optimized. This computationally efficient method is capable of describing CAD-generated geometries using open source software (geopdes, nlopt, octave) and it can simplify the step from design to simulation. We will present the mathematical formulation, the software workflow, and the results of an IGA-based shape optimization for a planned high-voltage upgrade of the dc photogun teststand Photo-CATCH at TU Darmstadt. The software builds on a general framework for isogeometric analysis and allows for easy adaptations to other geometries or quantities of interest. Simulations assuming a bias voltage of -300 kV yielded maximum field gradients of 9.06 MV m^{−1} on the surface of an inverted insulator electrode and below 3 MV m^{−1} on the surface of the photocathode.
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