Search Results (8 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.

Observations of strongly enhanced optical transition radiation (OTR) following significant bunch compression of photoinjector beams by a chicane have been reported during the commissioning of the Linac Coherent Light Source accelerator and recently at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) linac. These localized transverse spatial features involve signal enhancements of nearly a factor of 10 and 100 in the APS case at the 150-MeV and 375-MeV OTR stations, respectively. They are consistent with a coherent process seeded by noise and may be evidence of a longitudinal space charge microbunching instability which leads to coherent OTR emissions. Additionally, we suggest that localized transverse structure in the previous self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) free-electron laser (FEL) data at APS in the visible regime as reported at FEL02 may be attributed to such beam structure entering the FEL undulators and inducing the SASE startup at those “prebunched” structures. Separate beam structures 120 microns apart in x and 2.9 nm apart in wavelength were reported. The details of these observations and operational parameters will be presented.

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 report the first unambiguous demonstration of near-field imaging of optical diffraction radiation (ODR). The source of the ODR was an aluminum metal reflective surface with a 7-GeV electron beam passing nearby its single edge. Because of the high Lorentz factor γ involved, appreciable ODR is emitted at visible wavelengths even for impact parameters of 1 to 2 mm, so standard imaging techniques were employed. The experimental results are compared to a simple near-field model. We show that the ODR signals are sensitive to both beam size and position. Applications to multi-GeV beams in transport lines in the major synchrotron radiation facilities, x-ray free-electron lasers, energy recovering linacs, and the International Linear Collider are possible.

Efficient transfer of electron beams from one accelerator to another is important for 3rd-generation light sources that operate using top-up. In top-up mode, a constant amount of charge is injected at regular intervals into the storage ring to replenish beam lost primarily due to Touschek scattering. Top-up therefore requires that the complex of injector accelerators that fill the storage ring transport beam with a minimum amount of loss. Injection can be a source of significant beam loss if not carefully controlled. In this note we describe a method of processing injection transient signals produced by beam-position monitors and using the processed data in feedback. Feedback control using the technique described here has been incorporated in the Advanced Photon Source (APS) booster synchrotron to correct injection transients.

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.