Longitudinal phase space and temperature measurements were conducted on a $2–3\mu \mathrm{s}$ long, singly charged ${\mathrm{K}}^{+}$ ion bunch with an ion energy of $\sim 0.3\mathrm{MeV}$ and current of 30 mA. The principal objective of these experiments was to measure the longitudinal beam dynamics and study the limits of axial compression. The differences between the measured beam energy, longitudinal beam dynamics, and the amplitude and time history of the Marx voltage waveform were all quantified. Longitudinal phase space measurements indicate a slight chromaticity ($<1\%$) in the beam from head to tail. Record low longitudinal temperatures of $T_z=2–4\times {10}^{-2}\mathrm{eV}$ were measured for a beam bunch of this intensity with negligible effects from neutralizing the beam space charge with a background plasma. A qualitative comparison of experimental and calculated results are presented, which include time resolved longitudinal distributions, and phase space of the beam at 430 cm.

Energy recovery linacs (ERLs) are an emerging generation of accelerators that promises to revolutionize the fields of high-energy physics and photon sciences. These accelerators combine the advantages of linear accelerators with that of storage rings, and augur the delivery of electron beams of unprecedented power and quality. The use of superconducting radio-frequency cavities converts ERLs into nearly perfect “perpetuum mobile” accelerators, wherein the beam is accelerated to the desired energy, used, and then yields the energy back to the rf field. However, one potential weakness of these devices is transverse beam breakup instability that could severely limit the available beam current. In this paper, I propose a novel method of suppressing these dangerous effects via a natural phenomenon in the accelerators, viz., the chromaticity of the transverse motion.

Experimental and simulation data concerning fragmentation of ${}^{238}\mathrm{U}$ ion beam in aluminum, copper, and stainless-steel targets with the initial energy 500 and $950\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{u}$ are collected in the paper. A range-verification technique based on depth profiling of residual activity is presented. The irradiated targets were constructed in the stacked-foil geometry and analyzed using gamma-ray spectroscopy. One of the purposes of these experiments was depth profiling of residual activity of induced nuclides and projectile fragments. Among the projectile fragments, special attention is paid to the ${}^{237}\mathrm{U}$ isotope that has a range very close to the range of the primary ${}^{238}\mathrm{U}$ ions. Therefore, the depth profiling of the ${}^{237}\mathrm{U}$ isotope can be utilized for experimental verification of the ${}^{238}\mathrm{U}$ primary-beam range, which is demonstrated and discussed in the paper. The experimental data are compared with computer simulations by FLUKA, SRIM, and ATIMA, as well as with complementary experiments.

Thin film coatings have the potential to increase both the thermal efficiency and accelerating gradient in superconducting radio frequency accelerator cavities. However, before this potential can be realized, systematic studies on structure-property correlations in these thin films need to be carried out since the reduced geometry, combined with specific growth parameters, can modify the physical properties of the materials when compared to their bulk form. Here, we present our systematic studies of Nb thin films deposited onto Cu surfaces to clarify possible reasons for the limited success that this process exhibited in previous attempts. We compare these films with Nb grown on other surfaces. In particular, we study the crystal structure and surface morphology and their effect on superconducting properties, such as critical temperature and lower critical field. We found that higher deposition temperature leads to a sharper critical temperature transition, but also to increased roughness indicating that there are competing mechanisms that must be considered for further optimization.

Trapped magnetic flux is known to be one cause of residual losses in bulk niobium superconducting radio frequency cavities. In the Meissner state an ambient magnetic field should be expelled from the material. Disturbances such as lattice defects or impurities have the ability to inhibit the expulsion of an external field during the superconducting transition so that the field is trapped. We have investigated the effect the treatment history of bulk niobium has on the trapped flux and which treatment leads to minimal flux trapping. For that purpose, we measured the fraction of trapped magnetic flux in niobium samples representing cavities with different typical treatment histories. The differences between single crystal and polycrystalline material as well as the influence of spatial temperature gradients and different cooling rates were investigated. In addition, the progression of the release of a trapped field during warm-up was studied. We found that heat treatment reduces trapped flux considerably and that single crystal samples trap less flux than polycrystalline niobium. As a consequence, the single crystal sample with $1200°\mathrm{C}$ baking trapped the smallest amount of field which is about 42%. Moreover, the release of the trapped field during warm-up was observed to progress over a broad temperature range for the baked single crystal samples.

Recirculating linear accelerators (RLA’s) provide a compact and efficient way of accelerating particle beams to medium and high energies by reusing the same linac for multiple passes. In the conventional scheme, after each pass, the different energy beams coming out of the linac are separated and directed into appropriate arcs for recirculation, with each pass requiring a separate fixed-energy arc. In this paper we present a concept of an RLA return arc based on linear combined-function magnets, in which two and potentially more consecutive passes with very different energies are transported through the same string of magnets. By adjusting the dipole and quadrupole components of the constituting linear combined-function magnets, the arc is designed to be achromatic and to have zero initial and final reference orbit offsets for all transported beam energies. We demonstrate the concept by developing a design for a droplet-shaped return arc for a dogbone RLA capable of transporting two beam passes with momenta different by a factor of 2. We present the results of tracking simulations of the two passes and lay out the path to end-to-end design and simulation of a complete dogbone RLA.

This article presents the design and operation of a longitudinally tapered collimator in a single-pass $S$-band linac driving a high brightness electron beam. Measurements were done for the transverse emittance growth induced by the collimator wakefield as a function of the lateral displacement of the beam inside the collimator and the energy acceptance provided by an identical collimator installed in a dispersive region. The measurements demonstrate that: (i) the proposed design allows very precise and reproducible motion down to the micron level of the compact, four-hole collimator; (ii) the collimator does not degrade the beam emittance in the presence of standard trajectory control; (iii) the measured kick factor and energy acceptance are in agreement with the theoretical expectations. These measurements were made using 500 pC, 2.4 ps long bunches at the FERMI@Elettra free electron laser facility.

High-brightness electron beams with low energy spread at existing and future x-ray free-electron lasers are affected by various collective beam self-interactions and microbunching instabilities. The corresponding coherent optical radiation effects, e.g., coherent optical transition radiation, impede electron beam profile imaging and become a serious issue for all kinds of electron beam diagnostics using imaging screens. Furthermore, coherent optical radiation effects can also be related to intrinsically ultrashort electron bunches or the existence of ultrashort spikes inside the electron bunches. In this paper, we discuss methods to suppress coherent optical radiation effects both by electron beam profile imaging in dispersive beam lines and by using scintillation imaging screens in combination with separation techniques. The suppression of coherent optical emission in dispersive beam lines is shown by analytical calculations, numerical simulations, and measurements. Transverse and longitudinal electron beam profile measurements in the presence of coherent optical radiation effects in nondispersive beam lines are demonstrated by applying a temporal separation technique.

The typical response of an x-ray converter impacted by an intense relativistic electron beam is vaporization and rapid expansion. In the multipulse electron beam/target interaction process, the target expands, the density of material decreases, eventually affecting the x-ray output of the system. We report the relation between target material thickness with x-ray doses, and the design of a distributed target for multipulse beam/target interaction application. For a single pulse, we simulated and measured the x-ray doses and spot size on the distributed target, and compared them to similar results made by the standard converter target. For multipulses of microsecond time scale, we measured the change of the distributed target material density. The results indicate that the multipulse converter target design is feasible.

We discuss the inverse free electron laser (IFEL) scheme as a compact high gradient accelerator solution for driving advanced light sources such as a soft x-ray free electron laser amplifier or an inverse Compton scattering based gamma-ray source. In particular, we present a series of new developments aimed at improving the design of future IFEL accelerators. These include a new procedure to optimize the choice of the undulator tapering, a new concept for prebunching which greatly improves the fraction of trapped particles and the final energy spread, and a self-consistent study of beam loading effects which leads to an energy-efficient high laser-to-beam power conversion.

Degradation of the photocathode materials employed in photoinjectors represents a challenge for sustained operation of nuclear physics accelerators and high power free electron lasers (FEL). Photocathode quantum efficiency degradation is due to residual gases in the electron source vacuum system being ionized and accelerated back to the photocathode. These investigations are a first attempt to characterize the nature of the photocathode degradation, and employ multiple surface and bulk analysis techniques to investigate damage mechanisms including sputtering of the Cs-oxidant surface monolayer, other surface chemistry effects, and ion implantation. Surface and bulk analysis studies were conducted on two GaAs photocathodes, which were removed from the JLab FEL DC photoemission gun after delivering electron beam, and two control samples. The analysis techniques include helium ion microscopy, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), atomic force microscopy, and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). In addition, two high-polarization strained superlattice GaAs photocathode samples, one removed from the continuous electron beam accelerator facility (CEBAF) photoinjector and one unused, were also analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and SIMS. It was found that heat cleaning the FEL GaAs wafer introduces surface roughness, which seems to be reduced by prolonged use. The bulk GaAs samples retained a fairly well organized crystalline structure after delivering beam but show evidence of Cs depletion on the surface. Within the precision of the SIMS and RBS measurements, the data showed no indication of hydrogen implantation or lattice damage from ion back bombardment in the bulk GaAs wafers. In contrast, SIMS and TEM measurements of the strained superlattice photocathode show clear crystal damage in the wafer from ion back bombardment.

A new semianalytical method of investigating the beam dynamics for electron injectors was developed. In this method, a short bunched electron beam is assumed to be an ensemble of several segmentation pieces in both the longitudinal and the transverse directions. The trajectory of each electron in the segmentation pieces is solved by the beam envelope equations while taking into account the space charge fields produced by all the pieces, the electromagnetic fields of an rf cavity, and the image charge fields at a cathode surface. The shape of the entire bunch is consequently calculated, and thus the emittances can be obtained from weighted mean values of the solutions for the obtained electron trajectories. The advantage of this method is its unique assumption for the beam parameters. We assume that each segmentation slice is not warped in the calculations. Although if the beam energy is low and the charge density is large, this condition is not satisfied, in practice, this condition is usually satisfied. We have performed beam dynamics calculations to obtain traces in free space and in the BNL-type rf gun cavity by comparing the analytical solutions with those obtained by simulation. In most cases, the emittances obtained by the simulation become closer to those obtained analytically with increasing the number of particles used in the simulation. Therefore, the analytically obtained emittances are expected to coincide with converged values obtained by the simulation. The applicable range of the analytical method for the BNL-type rf gun cavity is under 0.5 nC per bunch. This range is often used in recently built x-ray free electron laser facilities.

Emittance preservation in the beam delivery system (BDS) is one of the major challenges in the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). The fast detuning of the final focus optics requires an on-line tuning procedure in order to keep luminosity close to the maximum. In this paper we discuss different tuning techniques to mitigate the displacement of magnets in the CLIC BDS and in particular in the final focus system. Some of them require a fast luminosity measurement. Here we study the possibility to use beam-beam background processes at CLIC 3 TeV c.m. energy as a fast luminosity signal. In particular, the hadron multiplicity in the detector region is investigated.

We consider the longitudinal point-charge wakefield, $w(s)$, for an axisymmetric collimator having inner radius $b$, outer radius $d$, inner length $g$, and taper length $L$. The taper angle $\alpha$ is defined by $\tan \alpha =(d-b)/L$. Using the electromagnetic simulation code ECHO, we explore the dependence of the wakefield on a collimator’s geometric parameters over a wide range of profiles: from small-angle tapers to step-function transitions. The point-charge wakefield is determined using an approximation introduced by Podobedov and Stupakov. We have found it useful to exhibit the wakefield as a function of the scaled variable $s/d\alpha$. For small taper angles, our results illustrate the satisfaction of the longitudinal scaling found by Stupakov, Bane, and Zagorodnov; and for larger taper angles, the breaking of this longitudinal scaling is clearly depicted. The use of the scaled variable $s/d\alpha$ turns out to be especially well suited to describing the wakefield for a collimator with step-function profile ($\alpha =\pi /2$).

The first annular-ring coupled structure (ACS) cavity for the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) linac has been developed in order to confirm and establish its fabrication processes. This cavity includes 34 accelerating cells, which is 3.4 times as many as the prototype cavity (buncher) of the J-PARC ACS. The cell frequencies before brazing were tuned within the required accuracies. After brazing, the accelerating- and coupling-mode frequencies were 972.19 and 972.63 MHz on average, respectively, which were higher than the operating frequency of 972 MHz. Although the accelerating-mode frequency can be corrected to 972 MHz using adjustable plungers, these frequency errors adversely affected the on-axis electric field. This cavity was successfully conditioned up to 1.6 MW. This power corresponds to an accelerating field of $4.7\mathrm{MV}/\mathrm{m}$, which is 10% higher than the design value of $4.2\mathrm{MV}/\mathrm{m}$. In order to find the issue caused by the excited coupling cells, this cavity was also conditioned at the higher and lower frequencies that were detuned from the operating frequency of 972 MHz. Here we present the frequency tuning processes, the low-level rf measurements, and the high-power test results. We also discuss the most reasonable scenario for frequency tuning in future work.

The present work explores the full role of relativistic effects in the transport of magnetically focused non-neutral cold beams. Not only relativistic effects along the transport axis are discussed, but relativistic effects associated with the transverse particle dynamics are also investigated. Transverse effects are directly connected with the amount of charge the beam transports and a proper discussion of relativistic features should include accurate analysis of all fields self-consistently created by space charge. We review and adapt the equilibrium analysis, and proceed to develop a convenient method to tackle dynamical situations. Simulations revealing how flattop initial conditions, the typical equilibrium profiles of nonrelativistic beams, evolve toward highly nonlinear states in relativistic beams are then presented and discussed.

The installation of international thermonuclear experimental reactor-relevant materials for the plasma facing components (PFCs) in the Joint European Torus (JET) is expected to have a strong impact on the operation and protection of the experiment. In particular, the use of all-beryllium tiles, which deteriorate at a substantially lower temperature than the formerly installed carbon fiber composite tiles, imposes strict thermal restrictions on the PFCs during operation. Prompt and precise responses are therefore required whenever anomalous temperatures are detected. The new vessel thermal map real-time application collects the temperature measurements provided by dedicated pyrometers and infrared cameras, groups them according to spatial location and probable offending heat source, and raises alarms that will trigger appropriate protective responses. In the context of the JET global scheme for the protection of the new wall, the system is required to run on a 10 ms cycle communicating with other systems through the real-time data network. In order to meet these requirements a commercial off-the-shelf solution has been adopted based on standard x86 multicore technology. Linux and the multithreaded application real-time executor (MARTe) software framework were respectively the operating system of choice and the real-time framework used to build the application. This paper presents an overview of the system with particular technical focus on the configuration of its real-time capability and the benefits of the modular development approach and advanced tools provided by the MARTe framework.