We derive the effect of 3-dimensional polarization profiles on the measured polarization in polarimeters, as well as the observed polarization and the polarization-weighted luminosity (figure of merit) in single and double spin measurements in colliding beam experiments. Applications to RHIC are discussed.

Experimental results are reported for test beam acceleration and deflection in a two-channel, cm-scale, rectangular dielectric-lined wakefield accelerator structure energized by a 14-MeV drive beam. The dominant waveguide mode of the structure is at $\sim 30\mathrm{GHz}$, and the structure is configured to exhibit a high transformer ratio ($\sim 12:1$). Accelerated bunches in the narrow secondary channel of the structure are continuously energized via Cherenkov radiation that is emitted by a drive bunch moving in the wider primary channel. Observed energy gains and losses, transverse deflections, and changes in the test bunch charge distribution compare favorably with predictions of theory.

A compact, solid-state accelerating structure based on surface waves is proposed and experimentally characterized. The structure, consisting of two SiC layers epitaxially grown on Si slabs and separated from each other by a subwavelength acceleration channel, is shown to support both longitudinal (accelerating) and transverse (deflecting) surface modes. Both modes are experimentally excited and characterized by performing angle-resolved spectroscopy with a wavelength-tunable carbon dioxide laser. Phase velocities of superluminous and subluminous modes are experimentally demonstrated, paving the way for tabletop charged particle acceleration. The same structure can be used for optical characterization of ultrashort electron bunches that generate longitudinal and transverse Cherenkov radiation.

This paper describes energetic condensation growth of Nb films using a cathodic arc plasma, whose 60–120 eV ions penetrate a few monolayers into the substrate and enable sufficient surface mobility to ensure that the lowest energy state (crystalline structure with minimal defects) is accessible to the film. Heteroepitaxial films of Nb were grown on $a$-plane sapphire and MgO crystals with good superconducting properties and crystal size ($10\mathrm{mm}\times 20\mathrm{mm}$) limited only by substrate size. The substrates were heated to temperatures of up to $700°\mathrm{C}$ and coated at $125°\mathrm{C}$, $300°\mathrm{C}$, $500°\mathrm{C}$, and $700°\mathrm{C}$. Film thickness was varied from $\sim 0.25\mu \mathrm{m}$ to $>3\mu \mathrm{m}$. Residual resistivity ratio ($⟨\mathrm{RRR}⟩$) values (up to a record $⟨\mathrm{RRR}⟩=587$ on MgO and $⟨\mathrm{RRR}⟩=328$ on $a$-sapphire) depend strongly on substrate annealing and deposition temperatures. X-ray diffraction spectra and pole figures reveal that RRR increases as the crystal structure of the Nb film becomes more ordered, consistent with fewer defects and, hence, longer electron mean-free path. A transition from Nb(110) to Nb(100) orientation on the MgO(100) lattice occurs at higher temperatures. This transition is discussed in light of substrate heating and energetic condensation physics. Electron backscattered diffraction and scanning electron microscope images complement the XRD data.

The longitudinal density monitor (LDM) is primarily intended for the measurement of the particle population in nominally empty rf buckets. These so-called satellite or ghost bunches can cause problems for machine protection as well as influencing the luminosity calibration of the LHC. The high dynamic range of the system allows measurement of ghost bunches with as little as 0.01% of the main bunch population at the same time as characterization of the main bunches. The LDM is a single-photon counting system using visible synchrotron light. The photon detector is a silicon avalanche photodiode operated in Geiger mode, which allows the longitudinal distribution of the LHC beams to be measured with a resolution of 90 ps. Results from the LDM are presented, including a proposed method for constructing a 3-dimensional beam density map by scanning the LDM sensor in the transverse plane. In addition, we present a scheme to improve the sensitivity of the system by using an optical switching technique.

The successful operation of x-ray free-electron lasers (FELs), like the Linac Coherent Light Source or the Free-Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH), makes unprecedented research on matter at atomic length and ultrafast time scales possible. However, in order to take advantage of these unique light sources and to meet the strict requirements of many experiments in photon science, FEL photon pulse durations need to be known and tunable. This can be achieved by controlling the FEL driving electron beams, and high-resolution longitudinal electron beam diagnostics can be utilized to provide constraints on the expected FEL photon pulse durations. In this paper, we present comparative measurements of soft x-ray pulse durations and electron bunch lengths at FLASH. The soft x-ray pulse durations were measured by FEL radiation pulse energy statistics and compared to electron bunch lengths determined by frequency-domain spectroscopy of coherent transition radiation in the terahertz range and time-domain longitudinal phase space measurements. The experimental results, theoretical considerations, and simulations show that high-resolution longitudinal electron beam diagnostics provide reasonable constraints on the expected FEL photon pulse durations. In addition, we demonstrated the generation of soft x-ray pulses with durations below 50 fs (FWHM) after the implementation of the new uniform electron bunch compression scheme used at FLASH.

We review the theory of free-electron laser (FEL) oscillators operating with tapered undulators. We have considered the case of a uniform tapering and introduced a parameter which characterizes the effect of the tapering on the gain and the saturation intensity. We have analyzed the effect of the tapering on the FEL dynamics by including the pulse propagation effects. We further analyze the importance of tapering as a tool to model the optical pulse shapes and to control the higher harmonic intensities.

Excess of nuclear interaction probability at volume reflection is evaluated within the approximation of dominance of the continuous planar potential and thin nuclear concentrations. The domain of the adopted approximations is determined. An estimate of the volume capture probability is provided. The theoretical predictions for inelastic nuclear interaction probability and for the final beam divergence are compared with the results of recent experiments, with satisfactory agreement within the theory applicability domain.

CERN currently delivers antiprotons for trapping experiments with the antiproton decelerator (AD), which slows the antiprotons down to about 5 MeV. This energy is currently too high for direct trapping, and thick foils are used to slow down the beam to energies which can be trapped. To allow further deceleration to $\sim 100\mathrm{keV}$, CERN is initiating the construction of ELENA, consisting of a ring which will combine rf deceleration and electron cooling capabilities. We describe a simple frictional cooling scheme that can serve to provide significantly improved trapping efficiency, either directly from the AD or first using a standard deceleration mechanism (induction linac or rf quadrupole). This scheme could be implemented in a short time. The device itself is short in length, uses accessible voltages, and at reasonable cost could serve in the interim before ELENA becomes operational, or possibly in lieu of ELENA for some experiments. Simple theory and simulations provide a preliminary assessment of the concept and its strengths and limitations, and highlight important areas for experimental studies, in particular to pin down the level of multiple scattering for low-energy antiprotons. We show that the frictional cooling scheme can provide a similar energy spectrum to that of ELENA, but with higher transverse emittances.

A novel beam-bunching technique has been implemented at a heavy-ion linear accelerator facility by installing a compact two-gap prebuncher and a multilayer beam chopper. A pulsed beam of 2 to 4 MHz, having kinetic energy up to $1.1\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{u}$, is realized by bunching a $2\mathrm{keV}/\mathrm{u}$ continuous beam just upstream of the linac. Around 40% of the continuous beam particles are successively gathered in a single microbunch with a time width of around 15 ns in full width at one-tenth maximum. The number of background beam particles over 250 ns just before the bunched beam is well suppressed to less than ${10}^{-4}$ of the number of bunched particles. This technique has been adopted to generate intense $\alpha$-particle beams for nuclear astrophysics experiments.

Transition radiation generated from a relativistic electron beam is used as a tool for diagnostics of the beam. Also, it can be used as a source of femtosecond (fs) THz radiation. We are generating the THz radiation with the pulse energy of $3\mu \mathrm{J}$ by means of the coherent transition radiation (CTR) from 55-MeV electron beam in the fs-THz linac at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory. The spatial distribution of CTR could be easily observed by using a pyroelectric camera. In this paper, we report observation of the transversal distribution of CTR in the prewave zone, and compare with calculated results based on the bunch form factor.

Emittance posts limits on the key requirements of final pulse length and spot size on target in heavy ion fusion drivers. In this paper, we show studies on the effect of nonlinear space charge on longitudinal emittance growth in the drift compression section. We perform simulations, using the 3D PIC code WARP, for a high current beam under conditions of bends and longitudinal compression. The linear growth rate for longitudinal emittance turns out to depend only on the peak line charge density, and is independent of pulse length, velocity tilt, and/or the pipe and beam size. This surprisingly simple result is confirmed by simulations and analytic calculations.

It is well known that in a superconducting accelerator a significant chromaticity drift can be induced by the decay of the sextupolar component of the main dipoles. In this paper we give a brief overview of what was expected for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the grounds of magnetic measurements of individual dipoles carried out during the production. According to this analysis, the decay time constants were of the order of 200 s: since the injection in the LHC starts at least 30 minutes after the magnets are at constant current, the dynamic correction of this effect was not considered to be necessary. The first beam measurements of chromaticity showed significant decay even after a few hours. For this reason, a dynamic correction of decay on the injection plateau was implemented based on beam measurements. This means that during the injection plateau the sextupole correctors are powered with a varying current to cancel out the decay of the dipoles. This strategy has been implemented successfully. A similar phenomenon has been observed for the dependence of the decay amplitude on the powering history of the dipoles: according to magnetic measurements, also in this case time constants are of the order of 200 s and therefore no difference is expected between a one hour or a ten hours flattop. On the other hand, the beam measurements show a significant change of decay for these two conditions. For the moment there is no clue of the origin of these discrepancies. We give a complete overview of the two effects, and the modifications that have been done to the field model parameters to be able to obtain a final chromaticity correction within a few units.

We present a novel method for measuring the duration of femtosecond x-ray pulses from self-amplified spontaneous emission free electron lasers by performing statistical analysis in the spectral domain. Analytical expressions of the spectral correlation function were derived in the linear regime to extract both the pulse duration and the spectrometer resolution. Numerical simulations confirmed that the method can be also used in the nonlinear regime. The method was demonstrated experimentally at the Linac Coherent Light Source by measuring pulse durations down to 13 fs FWHM.

Linac driven free electron lasers (FELs) operating in the x-ray region require a high brightness electron beam in order to reach saturation within a reasonable distance in the undulator train or to enable sophisticated seeding schemes using external lasers. The beam dynamics optimization is usually a time consuming process in which many parameters of the accelerator and the compression system have to be controlled simultaneously. The requirements on the electron beam quality may also vary significantly with the particular application. For example, the beam dynamics optimization strategy for self-amplified spontaneous emission operation and seeded operation are rather different: seeded operation requires a more careful control of the beam uniformity over a relatively large portion of the longitudinal current distribution of the electron bunch and is therefore more challenging from an accelerator physics point of view. Multiobjective genetic algorithms are particularly well suited when the optimization of many parameters is targeting several objectives simultaneously, often with conflicting requirements. In this paper we propose a novel optimization strategy based on a combination of multiobjective optimization with a fast computation of the FEL performance. The application to the proposed UK’s New Light Source is reported and the benefits of this method are highlighted.

Harmonic seeding of free electron lasers has attracted significant attention as a method for producing transform-limited pulses in the soft x-ray region. Harmonic multiplication schemes extend seeding to shorter wavelengths, but also amplify the spectral phase errors of the initial seed laser, and may degrade the pulse quality and impede production of transform-limited pulses. In this paper we consider the effect of seed laser phase errors in high gain harmonic generation and echo-enabled harmonic generation. We use simulations to confirm analytical results for the case of linearly chirped seed lasers, and extend the results for arbitrary seed laser envelope and phase.

After the successful operation of the Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) and the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), soft and hard x-ray free electron lasers (FELs) are being built, designed, or proposed at many accelerator laboratories. Acceleration employing lower frequency rf cavities, ranging from $L$-band to $C$-band, is usually adopted in these designs. In the first stage bunch compression, higher-frequency harmonic rf system is employed to linearize the beam’s longitudinal phase space, which is nonlinearly chirped during the lower frequency rf acceleration process. In this paper, a hard x-ray FEL design using an all $X$-band accelerator at 11.424 GHz (from photocathode rf gun to linac end) is presented, without the assistance of any harmonic rf linearization. It achieves LCLS-like performance at low charge using $X$-band linac drivers, which is more versatile, efficient, and compact than ones using $S$-band or $C$-band rf technology. It employs initially 42 microns long (rms), low-charge (10 pC) electron bunches from an $X$-band photoinjector. An overall bunch compression ratio of roughly 100 times is proposed in a two stage bunch compressor system. The start-to-end macroparticle 3D simulation employing several computer codes is presented in this paper, where space charge, wakefields, and incoherent and coherent synchrotron radiation effects are included. Employing an undulator with a short period of 1.5 cm, a Genesis FEL simulation shows successful lasing at a wavelength of 0.15 nm with a pulse length of 2 fs and a power saturation length as short as 20 meters, which is equivalent to LCLS low-charge mode. Its overall length of both accelerators and undulators is 180 meters (much shorter than the effective LCLS overall length of 1230 meters, including an accelerator length of 1100 meters and an undulator length of 130 meters), which makes it possible to be built in places where only limited space is available.

The effect of partial prebunching of an electron beam on the saturation length, efficiency, and longitudinal coherence is studied for a nominal x-ray free-electron laser design. Results indicate that partial prebunching of as little as 1% results in substantial (1) shortening of the saturation length, (2) increases in the efficiency, and (3) improvement in longitudinal coherence.

This brief note clarifies one specific aspect of a transient-time method of optical stochastic cooling that often creates confusion for the first time surveyor of this cooling technique.

A new technique of superconducting cavity diagnostics has been introduced by D. L. Hartill at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. It uses oscillating superleak transducers (OST) which detect the heat transferred from a cavity’s quench point via Second Sound through the superfluid He bath, needed to cool the superconducting cavity. The localization of the quench point is done by triangulation. The observed response of an OST is a nontrivial, but reproducible pattern of oscillations. A small helium evaporation cryostat was built which allows the investigation of the response of an OST in greater detail. The distance between a pointlike electrical heater and the OST can be varied. The OST can be mounted either parallel or perpendicular to the plate that houses the heat source. If the artificial quench point releases an amount of energy compatible to a real quench spot on a cavity’s surface, the OST signal starts with a negative pulse, which is usually strong enough to allow automatic detection. Furthermore, the reflection of the Second Sound on the wall is observed. A reflection coefficient $R=0.39\pm 0.05$ of the glass wall is measured. This excludes a strong influence of multiple reflections in the complex OST response. Fourier analyses show three main frequencies, found in all OST spectra. They can be interpreted as modes of an oscillating circular membrane.