Search Results (5 total)

The new generation of linac injectors driving free electron lasers in the self-amplified stimulated emission (SASE-FEL) regime requires high brightness electron beams to generate radiation in the wavelength range from UV to x rays. The choice of the injector working point and its matching to the linac structure are the key factors to meet this requirement. An emittance compensation scheme presently applied in several photoinjectors worldwide is known as the “Ferrario” working point. In spite of its great importance there was, so far, no direct measurement of the beam parameters, such as emittance, transverse envelope, and energy spread, in the region downstream the rf gun and the solenoid of a photoinjector to validate the effectiveness of this approach. In order to fully characterize the beam dynamics with this scheme, an innovative beam diagnostic device, the emittance meter, consisting of a movable emittance measurement system, has been designed and built. With the emittance meter, measurements of the main beam parameters in both transverse phase spaces can be performed in a wide range of positions downstream the photoinjector. These measurements help in tuning the injector to optimize the working point and provide an important benchmark for the validation of simulation codes. We report the results of these measurements in the SPARC photoinjector and, in particular, the first experimental evidence of the double minimum in the emittance oscillation, which provides the optimized matching to the SPARC linac.

In this Letter we report the first experimental observation of the double emittance minimum effect in the beam dynamics of high-brightness electron beam generation by photoinjectors; this effect, as predicted by the theory, is crucial in achieving minimum emittance in photoinjectors aiming at producing electron beams for short wavelength single-pass free electron lasers. The experiment described in this Letter was performed at the SPARC photoinjector site, during the first stage of commissioning of the SPARC project. The experiment was made possible by a newly conceived device, called an emittance meter, which allows a detailed and unprecedented study of the emittance compensation process as the beam propagates along the beam pipe.

We study the properties of ultracold Fermi gases in a three-dimensional optical lattice when crossing a Feshbach resonance. By using a zero-temperature formalism, we show that three-body processes are enhanced in a lattice system in comparison to the continuum case. This poses one possible explanation for the short molecule lifetimes found when decreasing the magnetic field across a Feshbach resonance. Effects of finite temperatures on the molecule formation rates are also discussed by computing the fraction of double-occupied sites. Our results show that current experiments are performed at temperatures considerably higher than expected: lower temperatures are required for fermionic systems to be used to simulate quantum Hamiltonians. In addition, by relating the double occupancy of the lattice to the temperature, we provide a means for thermometry in fermionic lattice systems, previously not accessible experimentally. The effects of ramping a filled lowest band across a Feshbach resonance when increasing the magnetic field are also discussed: fermions are lifted into higher bands due to entanglement of Bloch states, in good agreement with recent experiments.

We present an experimental study of the effective dissipation relevant in the thermally activated supercurrent decay of extremely underdamped Josephson junctions. Data referring to the supercurrent decay of Nb/AlO_x/Nb Josephson junctions are compared with the Kramers theory. Our measurements allow us to obtain the “effective” resistance to be used in the resistively shunted junction model that results to be the subgap resistance due to the presence of thermally activated quasiparticles. The extremely low dissipation level obtained at low temperatures renders our result quite interesting in view of experiments in the quantum limit.

Absolute photon absorption spectra at the K edges of Ti and Ni and at the L₃ edges of Pt and Au, recorded using synchrotron radiation, are reported. The average photon cross section at L₃ edges of Pt and Au are found to be in general agreement with the theoretical data of Scofield. A possible explanation of why such agreement is not found for Ti and Ni at K edges is presented.