Advanced simulation codes now exist that can self-consistently solve Maxwell’s equations for the combined system of an rf cavity and a beam bunch. While these simulations are important for a complete understanding of the beam dynamics in rf cavities, they require significant time and computing power. These techniques are therefore not readily included in real time simulations useful to the beam physicist during beam operations. Thus, there exists a need for a simplified algorithm which simulates realistic cavity fields significantly faster than self-consistent codes, while still incorporating enough of the necessary physics to ensure accurate beam dynamics computation. To this end, we establish a procedure for producing realistic field maps using lossless cavity eigenmode field solvers. This algorithm incorporates all relevant cavity design and operating parameters, including beam loading from a nonrelativistic beam. The algorithm is then used to investigate the asymmetric quadrupolelike focusing produced by the input couplers of the Cornell ERL injector cavity for a variety of beam and operating parameters.

We have demonstrated the generation of circularly polarized coherent light pulses at 66 nm wavelength by combining laser seeding at 263 nm of a 375 MeV relativistic electron bunch with subsequent coherent harmonic generation from an elliptical undulator of APPLE-II type. Coherent pulses at higher harmonics in linear polarization have been produced and recorded up to the sixth order (44 nm). The duration of the generated pulses depends on the temporal overlap of the initial seed laser pulse and the electron bunch and was on the order of 200 fs. Currently, this setup is the only source worldwide producing coherent fs-light pulses with variable polarization in the vacuum ultraviolet.

In this paper the influence of betatron coupling on the transverse beam emittances is described using the resonance driving terms formalism. Betatron coupling and vertical dispersion generated by magnetic and installation errors are major sources of vertical emittance. A new scheme for minimizing the latter is presented here, together with results from measurements carried out in 2010 at the ESRF electron storage ring, which provided vertical emittance of about 4.4 pm, a record low for this machine. Two schemes for the automatic compensation of coupling introduced by insertion devices are also presented with results from the first implementation tests. This paper is also an attempt to clarify the various definitions and meanings of vertical emittance in the presence of coupling.

The Oak Ridge Spallation Neutron Source comprises a 1 GeV, 1.5 MW linear accelerator followed by an accumulator ring and a liquid mercury target. To manage the beam loss caused by the $H^0$ excited states created during the $H^{-}$ charge-exchange injection into the accumulator ring, the stripper foil is located inside one of the chicane dipoles. This has some interesting consequences that were not fully appreciated until the beam power reached about 840 kW. One consequence was sudden failure of the stripper foil system due to convoy electrons stripped from the incoming $H^{-}$ beam, which circled around to strike the foil bracket and cause bracket failure. Another consequence is that convoy electrons can reflect back up from the electron catcher and strike the foil and bracket. An additional contributor to foil system failure is vacuum breakdown due to the charge developed on the foil by secondary electron emission. In this paper we detail these and other interesting failure mechanisms and describe the improvements we have made to mitigate them.

Higher-order laser modes are analyzed as a method to control focusing forces and improve the electron bunch quality in laser-plasma accelerators. In the linear wake regime, the focusing force is proportional to the transverse gradient of the laser intensity, which can be shaped by a superposition of modes. In particular, the transverse wakefield can be arbitrarily small in a region about the axis by adjusting the laser modes. Plasma channel effects, which prohibit the formation of the controlled-focusing region, can be mitigating by introducing a delay between the modes. Modes with parallel polarization produce a beat interference in the laser intensity, which lead to deflecting forces. This can be avoided by using modes with orthogonal polarization, different frequencies, or short pulses that do not overlap. Particle-in-cell simulations are performed of a laser-plasma accelerator in the quasilinear regime driven by high-order modes. Simulations show that, by including the first-order mode, the matched radius of the electron bunch is substantially increased, which for fixed bunch density and emittance implies an increase in the beam charge.

Experimental results in laser acceleration of protons and ions and theoretical predictions that the currently achieved energies might be raised by factors 5–10 in the next few years have stimulated research exploring this new technology for oncology as a compact alternative to conventional synchrotron based accelerator technology. The emphasis of this paper is on collection and focusing of the laser produced particles by using simulation data from a specific laser acceleration model. We present a scaling law for the “chromatic emittance” of the collector—here assumed as a solenoid lens—and apply it to the particle energy and angular spectra of the simulation output. For a 10 Hz laser system we find that particle collection by a solenoid magnet well satisfies requirements of intensity and beam quality as needed for depth scanning irradiation. This includes a sufficiently large safety margin for intensity, whereas a scheme without collection—by using mere aperture collimation—hardly reaches the needed intensities.

The RIKEN accelerator complex started feeding the next-generation exotic beam facility radioisotope beam factory (RIBF) with heavy-ion beams from 2007 after the successful commissioning of RIBF at the end of 2006. Many improvements made from 2007 to 2010 were instrumental in increasing the intensity of various heavy-ion beams. However, the available beam intensity of very heavy ion beams, especially uranium beams, is far below our goal of $1\mathrm{p}\mu \mathrm{A}$ ($6\times {10}^{12}\mathrm{particles}/\mathrm{s}$). In order to achieve this goal, upgrade programs are already in progress; the programs include the construction of a new 28-GHz superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source and a new injector linac. However, the most serious problem, that of a charge stripper for high-power uranium beams, still remains unsolved, despite extensive research and development work using large foils mounted on a rotating cylinder and a ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ gas stripper. A gas stripper is free from problems related to lifetime, though the equilibrium charge state in this stripper is considerably lower than that in a carbon foil, owing to the absence of the density effect. Nevertheless, the merits of gas strippers motivated us to develop a low-$Z$ gas stripper to achieve a higher equilibrium charge state even in gases. We measured the electron-loss and electron-capture cross sections of uranium ions in He gas as a function of their charge state at 11, 14, and $15\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{nucleon}$. The equilibrium charge states extracted from the intersection of the lines of the two cross sections were promisingly higher than those in ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ gas by more than 10. Simple simulations of charge development along the stripper thickness were performed by assuming the measured cross sections. The simulation results show that about $1\mathrm{mg}/{\mathrm{cm}}^2$ of He gas should be accumulated to achieve a charge state higher than that of ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ gas, notwithstanding the difficulty in accumulation of this helium amount owing to its fast dispersion. However, we now believe that the following two solutions can overcome this difficulty: a gas cell with a very large differential pumping system and a gas cell with a plasma window. Their merits and demerits are discussed in the paper.

The proton beams used for the fixed target physics at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) are extracted from the Proton Synchrotron (PS) by a multiturn technique called continuous transfer (CT). During the CT extraction, large losses are observed in locations where the machine aperture should be large enough to accommodate the circulating beam. This limits the maximum intensity deliverable due to the induced stray radiation outside the PS tunnel. Scattered particles from the interaction with the electrostatic septum are identified as the possible source of these losses. This article presents a detailed study aiming to understand the origin of losses and propose possible cures. The simulations could reproduce accurately the beam loss pattern measured in real machine operation and determine the beam shaving, intrinsic to the extraction process, as the cause for the unexpected losses. Since these losses are unavoidable, the proposed solution implies a new optics scheme displacing the losses to a region with better shielding. New simulations demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the new extraction optics and its suitability to be implemented in the machine. Finally, beam loss measurements in these new operation conditions confirmed the previous simulation results.

The Metrology Light Source is a recently constructed 630 MeV electron storage ring, operating as a synchrotron radiation source for the THz to extreme UV spectral range. It is the first storage ring optimized for generating intense, broadband, coherent THz radiation, based on a bunch shortening mode. Stable (“steady state”) or bursting THz radiation up to an average power of about 60 mW can be obtained. The applied machine operation mode is achieved by manipulating the momentum compaction factor $\alpha$ by a novel tuning scheme. The underlying low-$\alpha$ scheme is of general interest for operating a storage ring in a short bunch mode and is the main subject of this paper.

In recent years nonuniform dipoles with bending-radius variation have been studied for reducing storage ring emittance. According to a new minimum-emittance theory, the effects of an arbitrary dipole can be characterized with two parameters determined by the dipole. To have a better idea of the potentials of nonuniform dipoles, here we numerically explore the possible values of these two parameters and associated bending profiles for optimal emittance reduction. Such optimization results provide a useful reference for lattice designs involving nonuniform bending. Simple bending-radius profiles (a short segment of constant radius with linear ramps on the sides) were found to be close to the optimal. Basic beam and lattice properties such as emittance, energy spread, and phase advances are presented based on the optimal dipole solutions.

The LANL/AES normal-conducting radio-frequency injector has been tested at cw cathode gradients up to $10\mathrm{MV}/\mathrm{m}$. Field-emission electrons from a roughened copper cathode are accelerated to beam energy as high as 2.5 MeV and impinge on a stainless steel target. The energies of the resulting bremsstrahlung photons are measured at varying levels of injector cavity rf power corresponding to different accelerating gradients. At low cavity power, the bremsstrahlung spectra exhibit well-defined end-point energies at the positions where the number of single-photon events decreases to one ($\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{N}\mathrm{\text{ratio}}=1$). Increasing the cavity power raises the probability of two-photon events in which two photons simultaneously arrive at the detector and register counts at twice the photon energy. The end-point energies at high cavity power are recorded at positions where the single-photon events transition to two-photon events. The measured end-point energies using this method are in excellent agreement with PARMELA calculations based on the cavity gradients deduced from the cavity rf power measurements.

The applications of magnetrons to high power proton and cw electron linacs are discussed. An experiment is described where a 2.45 GHz magnetron has been used to drive a single cell superconducting cavity. With the magnetron injection locked, a modest phase control accuracy of 0.95° rms has been demonstrated. Factors limiting performance have been identified.

The luminosity of Compton x-ray and $\gamma$ sources depends on the average current in electron bunches, the energy of the laser pulses, and the geometry of the particle bunch to laser pulse collisions. To obtain high power photon pulses, these can be stacked in a passive optical resonator (Fabry-Perot cavity) especially when a high average flux is required. But, in this case, owing to the presence of the optical cavity mirrors, the electron bunches have to collide at an angle with the laser pulses with a consequent luminosity decrease. In this article a crab-crossing scheme is proposed for Compton sources, based on a laser amplified in a Fabry-Perot resonator, to eliminate the luminosity losses given by the crossing angle, taking into account that in laser-electron collisions only the electron bunches can be tilted at the collision point. We report the analytical study on the crab-crossing scheme for Compton gamma sources. The analytical expression for the total yield of photons generated in Compton sources with the crab-crossing scheme of collision is derived. The optimal collision angle of the bunch was found to be equal to half of the collision angle. At this crabbing angle, the maximal yield of scattered off laser photons is attained thanks to the maximization, in the collision process, of the time spent by the laser pulse in the electron bunch. Estimations for some Compton source projects are presented. Furthermore, some schemes of the optical cavities configuration are analyzed and the luminosity calculated. As illustrated, the four-mirror two- or three-dimensional scheme is the most appropriate for Compton sources.

Here we show a possibility of applying the ramped drive bunch train (RBT) technique to a two-channel coaxial dielectric wakefield accelerator (CDWA). For numerical research we study a 28 GHz structure with two nested alumina cylindrical shells having these diameters: outer shell, $\mathrm{OD}=28.1\mathrm{mm}$, $\mathrm{ID}=27\mathrm{mm}$; inner shell, $\mathrm{OD}=6.35\mathrm{mm}$, $\mathrm{ID}=4.0\mathrm{mm}$. The structure is to be excited by a train of four annular bunches having energy 14 MeV and axial rms length 1 mm; the total charge of bunches is 200 nC. In the case of equally charged drive bunches, spaced apart by the principal wakefield wavelength 10.67 mm, we obtained transformer ratio $T=3.4$. If the bunch charge is increasing as the ratio $1:3:5:7$ and the bunches are spaced by one and one-half wavelengths, we obtained $T=3.8$. We found that if the charge ratios are $1.0:2.4:3.5:5.0$ and the spaces between the bunches are 2.5, 2.5, and 4.5 wakefield periods, then $T$ increases strongly, $T\sim 20$. The RBT also can be used successfully in a high gradient THz CDWA structure. A particle-in-cell simulation shows that the four drive bunches can move without appreciable distortion.

The design and performance are presented of an electromagnetically driven gas valve [M. Krishnan, J. Wright, and T. Ma, Proceedings of the 13th Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop, Santa Cruz, CA, AIP Conf. Proc. No. 1086 (AIP, New York, 2008)] that opens in $<100\mu \mathrm{s}$, closes in $<500\mu \mathrm{s}$, and can operate at pressures of $\sim 1000\mathrm{psia}$ to drive supersonic nozzles. Such a valve has applications to laser-plasma accelerators, where the fast opening and closing would allow sharper edges to the flow and also allow higher rep-rate operation without loading the vacuum chamber. The valve action is effected by a flyer plate accelerated by the electromagnetic impulse of a low inductance, spiral wound, strip-line coil driven by a capacitor. Gas flows out of the valve when the seal between this flyer plate and the valve seat is broken. The electromagnetic force greatly exceeds the restoring forces provided by a spring and the gas pressure against the valve seat. Piezoresistive sensor and laser interferometer measurements of flow show that the valve opens in $\sim 100\mu \mathrm{s}$ for all pressures up to 800 psia. The closing time is $500\mu \mathrm{s}$, set by the spring constant and mass. The prototype valve has been operated with helium at 0.5 Hz and at 500 psia for $\sim 1$ hour at a time with no cooling.

Using a time-dependent approach, the analysis and optimization of a planar free-electron laser (FEL) amplifier with an axial magnetic field and an irregular waveguide is performed. By applying methods of nonlinear dynamics, a self-consistent reduced model of the FEL is built in a special phase space. This reduced model is the generalization of the Colson-Bonifacio model and takes into account the intricate dynamics of electrons in the pump magnetic field and the intramode scattering in the irregular waveguide. The reduced model and concepts of evolutionary computation are used to find optimal waveguide profiles. The numerical simulation of the original nonsimplified model is performed to check the effectiveness of found optimal profiles. To demonstrate advantages of the proposed FEL configuration, the parameters are chosen to be close to the parameters of the experiment [S. Cheng et al., IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 24, 750 (1996)], in which a sheet electron beam with the moderate thickness interacts with the ${\mathrm{TE}}_{01}$ mode of a rectangular waveguide. The results strongly indicate that one can improve the efficiency by a factor of 5 or 6 if the FEL operates in the magnetoresonance regime and if the irregular waveguide with the optimized profile is used. The FEL efficiency is maximal if the initial beam energy is slightly higher than the energy that corresponds to a transition between negative- and positive-mass regimes so that the transition from the negative-mass to positive-mass regimes occurs during the beam-wave interaction.

Mid-$Z$ ion driven fast ignition inertial fusion requires ion beams of hundreds of MeV energy and $<10\%$ energy spread. The break-out afterburner (BOA) is one mechanism proposed to generate such beams; however, the late stages of the BOA tend to produce too large of an energy spread. Here we show how use of a second target foil placed behind a nm-scale foil can substantially reduce the temperature of the comoving electrons and improve the ion beam energy spread, leading to ion beams of energy hundreds of MeV and 6% energy spread.

We introduce a new algorithm, which we call the cascaded parameter scan method, to efficiently carry out the scan over magnet parameters in the safety analysis for top-off injection in synchrotron radiation storage rings. In top-off safety analysis, one must track particles populating phase space through a beam line containing magnets and apertures and clearly demonstrate that, for all possible magnet settings and errors, all particles are lost on scrapers within the properly shielded region. In the usual approach, if one considers $m$ magnets and scans each magnet through $n$ setpoints, then one must carry out $n^m$ tracking runs. In the cascaded parameter scan method, the number of tracking runs is reduced to $n\times m$. This reduction of exponential to linear dependence on the number of setpoints $n$ greatly reduces the required computation time and allows one to more densely populate phase space and to increase the number $n$ of setpoints scanned for each magnet.

The acceleration of electrons by a radially polarized intense laser pulse has been studied. The axial electric field of the laser is responsible for electron acceleration. The axial electric field increases with decreasing laser spot size; however, the laser pulse gets defocused sooner for smaller values and the electrons do not experience high electric field for long, reducing the energy they can reach. The electron remains confined in the electric field of the laser for longer and the electron energy peaks for the normalized laser spot size nearly equal to the normalized laser intensity parameter. Electron energy peaks for initial laser phase ${\varphi }_0=\pi$ due to accelerating laser phase and decreases with transverse initial position of the electrons. The energy and angle of the emittance spectrum of the electrons generated during ionization of krypton and argon at low densities have been obtained and a right choice of laser parameters has been suggested to obtain high energy quasimonoenergetic collimated electron beams. It has been found that argon is more suitable than krypton to obtain high energy electron beams due to higher ionization potential of inner shells for the former.

In this paper we study the performance of two complementary short pulse generation schemes as applied to a soft x-ray free electron laser. The first scheme, recently proposed by Saldin et al., makes use of a laser pulse consisting of only a few optical cycles to give an energy chirp to a short section of an electron bunch and tapers the main radiator undulator in order to compensate the chirped region. The second scheme investigated takes a low-charge, high brightness electron bunch and compresses it to $\sim 1\mathrm{fs}$ in order to operate in the so-called “single-spike” regime. We perform start-to-end simulations of both these schemes, assess the sensitivity of each scheme to realistic jitter sources, and provide a direct comparison of the respective strengths and drawbacks.