First observations and suppression of multipass, multibunch beam breakup in the Jefferson Laboratory free electron laser upgrade

The multipass, multibunch beam breakup (BBU) instability imposes a potentially severe limitation to the average current that can be accelerated in an energy-recovery linac. Simulation results for Jefferson Lab’s free electron laser (FEL) upgrade driver are presented which predict the occurrence of BBU below the nominal operating current of the machine. In agreement with simulation, BBU was observed and preliminary measurements to identify the higher-order mode causing the instability are shown. In addition, measurements performed to experimentally determine the threshold current are described. Using a newly developed two-dimensional BBU simulation code, we study the effect of optical suppression techniques, first proposed in 1980 [R. E. Rand and T. I. Smith, Part. Accel. 11, 1 (1980)], on the threshold current of the FEL. Specifically we consider the effect of (1) reflecting the betatron planes about an axis that is at 45° between the vertical and horizontal axes and (2) rotating the betatron planes by 90°. In two-pass recirculators, a 90° rotation can be effective at increasing the threshold current for BBU. The successful installation of a five skew-quadrupole reflector in the backleg of the FEL has been shown to be effective at suppressing the instability and comments on preliminary operational experience will be given.