Search Results (14 total)

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) injector complex includes an option for rf photocathode (PC) gun beam injection into the 450-MeV S-band linac. At the 150-MeV point, a four-dipole chicane was used to compress the micropulse bunch length from a few ps to sub-0.5 ps (FWHM). Noticeable enhancements of the optical transition radiation (OTR) signal sampled after the APS chicane were then observed as has been reported in the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) injector commissioning. A far-infrared (FIR) coherent transition radiation detector and interferometer were used to monitor the bunch compression process and correlate the appearance of localized spikes of OTR signal (5 to 10 times brighter than adjacent areas) within the beam-image footprint. We have performed spectral-dependency measurements at 375 MeV with a series of bandpass filters centered in 50-nm increments from 400 to 700 nm and with an imaging spectrometer and observed a broadband enhancement in these spikes. Mitigation concepts of the observed coherent OTR, which exhibits an intensity enhancement in the red part of the visible spectrum as compared to incoherent OTR, are described.

Maintaining stable phasing in a linear accelerator is crucial for maintaining optimal performance. If phasing is incorrect, the beam will in general have an energy error and increased energy spread. While an energy error can be readily detected and corrected using position readings from beam position monitors at dispersion locations, this method is not useful for correcting energy spread in a system with many possible phase errors. While energy spread can be corrected by looking at beam size at a dispersive location, this typically involves a beam-intercepting diagnostic and is not compatible with top-up operation. Uncorrected energy spread results in poor capture efficiency in downstream accelerators, such as the Advanced Photon Source (APS) particle accumulator ring or booster synchrotron. To address this issue, APS has implemented beam-to-rf phase detectors in the linac, along with software for automatic correction of phase errors. We discuss the design, implementation, and performance of these detectors, as well as their use in feedback to automatically correct linac phase errors during top-up operation.

We show that, through careful control of noise sources, it is possible to determine the microbunching gain curve for the FERMI@ELETTRA linac using the particle tracking code elegant. In addition to using a sufficiently large number of particles (60×10⁶), use of a low-pass filter is very helpful in controlling noise and providing convenient intrabin interpolation. Gains of up to 1500 are seen for modulation wavelengths down to 25  μm. Because of the high gain, very small initial modulations are needed to avoid saturation, which further motivates the use of a large number of particles. We also show, for the first time, how the density modulation evolves in detail inside the dipoles of a multichicane system.

The duration of the x-ray pulse generated at a synchrotron light source is typically tens of picoseconds. Shorter pulses are highly desired by the users. In electron storage rings, the vertical beam size is usually orders of magnitude less than the bunch length due to radiation damping; therefore, a shorter pulse can be obtained by slitting the vertically tilted bunch. Zholents proposed tilting the bunch using rf deflection. We found that tilted bunches can also be generated by a dipole magnet kick. A vertical tilt is developed after the kick in the presence of nonzero chromaticity. The tilt was successfully observed and a 4.2-ps pulse was obtained from a 27-ps electron bunch at the Advanced Photon Source. Based on this principle, we propose a short-pulse generation scheme that produces picosecond x-ray pulses at a repetition rate of 1–2 kHz, which can be used for pump-probe experiments.

A method for producing short electron bunches in an electron storage ring using pulsed phase modulation has been demonstrated. A simple theoretical model was validated using the particle tracking code elegant, and the bunch compression process was observed experimentally in the Advanced Photon Source storage ring using a visible light streak camera. Compression to 54% of the initial bunch length was achieved.

The particle motion in storage rings is coupled between the longitudinal and the transverse planes in the presence of nonzero dispersion rf cavities. We found that the particle motion can be modeled separately with a redefined closed orbit. The closed orbit can be described by a Green’s function, which was confirmed in the simulation and in the experiment. The pathlength is calculated from the redefined closed orbit, and we found that the longitudinal phase slip is related not only to the momentum, but also to the rf phase of the particle. The effect on the longitudinal motion becomes significant if the phase slip caused by the rf cavities is large or if the momentum compaction factor is small, such as in the lower alpha-c lattice which is intended to produce shorter bunches.

We present detailed simulations and analysis of Zholents’s [A. Zholents, P. Heimann, M. Zolotorev, and J. Byrd, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 425, 385 (1999).] concept for using deflecting cavities in a synchrotron light source storage ring for the purpose of producing short x-ray pulses. In particular, we look at the optimization and performance of such a system for the Advanced Photon Source. We find the concept is practical and that x-ray pulse durations of about 1.5 ps FWHM should be achievable with more than 15% of the original intensity retained. Issues covered include lattice design, emittance degradation, lifetime, photon beam modeling, errors, and optimum choice of rf parameters.

A microbunching instability driven by longitudinal space charge, coherent synchrotron radiation, and linac wakefields is studied for the linac coherent light source (LCLS) accelerator system. Since the uncorrelated (local) energy spread of electron beams generated from a photocathode rf gun is very small, the microbunching gain may be large enough to significantly amplify rf-gun generated modulations or even shot-noise fluctuations of the electron beam. The uncorrelated energy spread can be increased by an order of magnitude to provide strong Landau damping against the instability without degrading the free-electron laser performance. We study different damping options in the LCLS and discuss an effective laser heater to minimize the impact of the instability on the quality of the electron beam.

We report the first measurements of z-dependent coherent optical transition radiation (COTR) due to electron-beam microbunching at high gains ( >10⁴) including saturation of a self-amplified spontaneous emission free-electron laser (FEL). In these experiments the fundamental wavelength was near 530 nm, and the COTR spectra exhibit the transition from simple spectra to complex spectra ( 5% spectral width) after saturation. The COTR intensity growth and angular distribution data are reported as well as the evidence for transverse spectral dependencies and an “effective” core of the beam being involved in microbunching.

We propose a scheme for bright sub-100-fs x-ray radiation generation using small-angle Thomson scattering. Coupling high-brightness electron bunches with high-power ultrafast laser pulses, radiation with photon energies between 8 and 40 keV can be generated with pulse duration comparable to that of the incoming laser pulse and with peak spectral brightness close to that of the third-generation synchrotron light sources of ∼10²⁰ photons s^-1 mm^-2 mrad^-2 per 10^-3 bandwidth. A preliminary dynamic calculation is performed to understand the property of this novel scattering scheme with relativistic laser intensities.

A magnetic bunch compressor was designed and commissioned to provide higher peak current for the Advanced Photon Source's Low-Energy Undulator Test Line free-electron laser [S. V. Milton et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 988 (2000)]. Of great concern is limiting emittance growth due to coherent synchrotron radiation. Tolerances must also be carefully evaluated to find stable operating conditions and ensure that the system can meet operational goals. Automated matching and tolerance simulations allowed consideration of numerous configurations, pinpointing those with reduced error sensitivity. Simulations indicate significant emittance growth up to 600 A peak current, for which the normalized emittance will increase from 5 to about 8.5 μm. The simulations also provide predictions of emittance variation with chicane parameters and precompressor linac phase, which we hope to verify experimentally.

Coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) is of great interest to those designing accelerators as drivers for free-electron lasers (FELs). Although experimental evidence is incomplete, CSR is predicted to have potentially severe effects on the emittance of high-brightness electron beams. The performance of an FEL depends critically on the emittance, current, and energy spread of the beam. Attempts to increase the current through magnetic bunch compression can lead to increased emittance and energy spread due to CSR in the dipoles of such a compressor. The code elegant was used for design and simulation of the bunch compressor [M. Borland et al., in Proceedings of the 2000 Linear Accelerator Conference, Monterey, CA (SLAC, Menlo Park, CA, 2001), p. 863] for the low-energy undulator test line (LEUTL) FEL [S. V. Milton et al., Phys. Rev. Let. 85, 988 (1999)] at the Advanced Photon Source (APS). In order to facilitate this design, a fast algorithm was developed based on the 1D formalism of Saldin and co-workers [E. L. Saldin, E. A. Schneidmiller, and M. V. Yurkov, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 398, 373 (1997)]. In addition, a method of including CSR effects in drift spaces following the chicane magnets was developed and implemented. The algorithm is fast enough to permit running hundreds of tolerance simulations including CSR for 50 000 particles. This article describes the details of the implementation and shows results for the APS bunch compressor.

We report the first measurements of the electron-beam microbunching z dependence in a self-amplified spontaneous-emission (SASE) free-electron laser (FEL) experiment by the observation of visible wavelength coherent transition radiation (CTR). In this case the fundamental SASE wavelength was at 537 nm, and the CTR exhibited an exponential intensity growth similar to the SASE radiation. In addition, we observed for the first time structure in the CTR angular distribution patterns that may be useful for optimizing SASE FEL performance.

Experimental evidence for self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) at 530 nm is reported. The measurements were made at the low-energy undulator test line facility at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. The experimental setup and details of the experimental results are presented, as well as preliminary analysis. This experiment extends to shorter wavelengths the operational knowledge of a linac-based SASE free-electron laser and explicitly shows the predicted exponential growth in intensity of the optical pulse as a function of length along the undulator.