Search Results (11 total)

We report experimental observation of narrow-band coherent Cherenkov radiation driven by a subpicosecond electron bunch traveling along the axis of a hollow cylindrical dielectric-lined waveguide. For an appropriate choice of dielectric wall thickness, a short-pulse beam current profile excites only the fundamental mode of the structure, producing energetic pulses in the terahertz range. We present detailed measurements showing a narrow emission spectrum peaked at 367±3  GHz from a 1 cm long fused silica capillary tube with submillimeter transverse dimensions, closely matching predictions. We demonstrate a 100 GHz shift in the emitted central frequency when the tube wall thickness is changed by 50  μm. Calibrated measurements of the radiated energy indicate up to 10  μJ per 60 ps pulse for an incident beam charge of 200 pC, corresponding to a peak power of approximately 150 kW.

We report the first successful attempt to generate ultrashort (1–10 ps) relativistic electron bunches characterized by a ramped longitudinal current profile that rises linearly from head to tail and then falls sharply to zero. Bunches with this type of longitudinal shape may be applied to plasma-based accelerator schemes as an optimized drive beam, and to free-electron lasers as a means of reducing asymmetry in microbunching due to slippage. The scheme used to generate the ramped bunches employs an anisochronous dogleg beam line with nonlinear correction elements to compress a beam having an initial positive time-energy chirp. The beam current profile is measured using a deflecting mode cavity, and a pseudoreconstruction of the beam’s longitudinal phase space distribution is obtained by using this diagnostic with a residual horizontal dispersion after the dogleg.

First measurements of the breakdown threshold in a dielectric subjected to GV/m wakefields produced by short (30–330 fs), 28.5 GeV electron bunches have been made. Fused silica tubes of 100  μm inner diameter were exposed to a range of bunch lengths, allowing surface dielectric fields up to 27  GV/m to be generated. The onset of breakdown, detected through light emission from the tube ends, is observed to occur when the peak electric field at the dielectric surface reaches 13.8±0.7  GV/m. The correlation of structure damage to beam-induced breakdown is established using an array of postexposure inspection techniques.

Observation of ultrawide bandwidth, up to 15% full-width, high-gain operation of a self-amplified spontaneous emission free-election laser (SASE FEL) is reported. This type of lasing is obtained with a strongly chirped beam (δE/E∼1.7%) emitted from the accelerator. Because of nonlinear pulse compression during transport, a short, high current bunch with strong mismatch errors is injected into the undulator, giving high FEL gain. Start-to-end simulations reproduce key features of the measurements and provide insight into mechanisms, such as angular spread in emitted photon and electron trajectory distributions, which yield novel features in the radiation spectrum.

Advanced high-brightness beam applications such as inverse-Compton scattering (ICS) depend on achieving of ultrasmall spot sizes in high current beams. Modern injectors and compressors enable the production of high-brightness beams having needed short bunch lengths and small emittances. Along with these beam properties comes the need to produce tighter foci, using stronger, shorter focal length optics. An approach to creating such strong focusing systems using high-field, small-bore permanent-magnet quadrupoles (PMQs) is reported here. A final-focus system employing three PMQs, each composed of 16 neodymium iron boride sectors in a Halbach geometry has been installed in the PLEIADES ICS experiment. The field gradient in these PMQs is 560   T/m, the highest ever reported in a magnetic optics system. As the magnets are of a fixed field strength, the focusing system is tuned by adjusting the position of the three magnets along the beam line axis, in analogy to familiar camera optics. This paper discusses the details of the focusing system, simulation, design, fabrication, and experimental procedure in creating ultrasmall beams at PLEIADES.

Energy gain of trapped electrons in excess of 20 MeV has been demonstrated in an inverse-free-electron-laser (IFEL) accelerator experiment. A 14.5 MeV electron beam is copropagated with a 400 GW CO₂ laser beam in a 50 cm long undulator strongly tapered in period and field amplitude. The Rayleigh range of the laser, ∼1.8  cm, is much shorter than the undulator length yielding a diffraction-dominated interaction. Experimental results on the dependence of the acceleration on injection energy, laser focus position, and laser power are discussed. Simulations, in good agreement with the experimental data, show that most of the energy gain occurs in the first half of the undulator at a gradient of 70  MeV/m and that the structure in the measured energy spectrum arises because of higher harmonic IFEL interaction in the second half of the undulator.

We examine the use of sextupole magnets to correct nonlinearities in the longitudinal phase space transformation of a relativistic beam of charged particles in a dispersionless translating section, or dogleg. Through heuristic analytical arguments and examples derived from recent experimental efforts, augmented by simulations using the particle tracking codes PARMELA and ELEGANT, sextupole corrections are found to be effective in optimizing the use of such structures for beam compression or for shaping the current profile of the beam, by manipulation of the second-order longitudinal dispersion. Recent experimental evidence of the use of sextupoles to manipulate second-order horizontal and longitudinal dispersion of the beam is presented. The theoretical and experimental results indicate that these manipulations can be used to create an electron bunch with a current profile having a long ramp followed by a sharp cutoff, which is optimal for driving large-amplitude wake fields in a plasma wake field accelerator.

Velocity bunching has been recently proposed as a tool for compressing electron beam pulses in modern high brightness photoinjector sources. This tool is familiar from earlier schemes implemented for bunching dc electron sources, but presents peculiar challenges when applied to high current, low emittance beams from photoinjectors. The main difficulty foreseen is control of emittance oscillations in the beam in this scheme, which can be naturally considered as an extension of the emittance compensation process at moderate energies. This paper presents two scenarios in which velocity bunching, combined with emittance control, is to play a role in nascent projects. The first is termed ballistic bunching, where the changing of relative particle velocities and positions occur in distinct regions, a short high gradient linac, and a drift length. This scenario is discussed in the context of the proposed ORION photoinjector. Simulations are used to explore the relationship between the degree of bunching, and the emittance compensation process. Experimental measurements performed at the UCLA Neptune Laboratory of the surprisingly robust bunching process, as well as accompanying deleterious transverse effects, are presented. An unanticipated mechanism for emittance growth in bends for highly momentum chirped beam was identified and studied in these experiments. The second scenario may be designated as phase space rotation, and corresponds closely to the recent proposal of Ferrario and Serafini. Its implementation for the compression of the electron beam pulse length in the PLEIADES inverse Compton scattering (ICS) experiment at LLNL is discussed. It is shown in simulations that optimum compression may be obtained by manipulation of the phases in low gradient traveling wave accelerator sections. Measurements of the bunching and emittance control achieved in such an implementation at PLEIADES, as well as aspects of the use of velocity-bunched beam directly in ICS experiments, are presented.

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.

We report measurements of large gain for a single pass free-electron laser operating in self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) at 16 μm starting from noise. We also report the first observation and analysis of intensity fluctuations of the SASE radiation intensity in the high gain regime. The results are compared with theoretical predictions and simulations.

The measurement of the transverse phase-space map, or transport matrix, of a relativistic electron in a high-gradient, radio-frequency linear accelerator (rf linac) at the UCLA photoinjector is reported. This matrix, which indicates the effects of acceleration (adiabatic damping), first-order transient focusing, and ponderomotive second-order focusing, is measured as a function of both rf field amplitude and phase in the linac. The elements of the matrix, determined by observation of centroid motion at a set of downstream diagnostics due to deflections induced by a set of upstream steering magnets, compare well with previously developed analytical theory [J. Rosenzweig and L. Serafini, Phys. Rev. E 49, 1599 (1994)]. The determinant of the matrix is obtained, yielding a direct confirmation of trace space adiabatic damping. Implications of these results on beam optics at moderate energy in high-gradient linear accelerators such as rf photoinjectors are discussed.