There is growing interest in the generation and characterization of femtosecond and subfemtosecond pulses from linac-based free-electron lasers (FELs). In this report, following the method of Ricci and Smith [Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 3, 032801 (2000)], we investigate the measurement of the longitudinal bunch profile of an ultrashort electron bunch produced by these FELs. We show that this method can be applied in a straightforward manner at x-ray FEL facilities such as the Linac Coherent Light Source by slightly adjusting the second bunch compressor followed by running the bunch on an rf zero-crossing phase of the final linac. We find that the linac wakefield strongly perturbs the measurement, and through analysis show that it can be compensated in a simple way. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this method and wakefield compensation through numerical simulations, including effects of coherent synchrotron radiation and longitudinal space charge. When used in conjunction with a high-resolution electron spectrometer, this method potentially reveals the temporal profile of the electron beam down to the femtosecond and subfemotsecond scale.

A longitudinal-to-transverse mapping technique is proposed to measure the length and temporal profile of ultrashort electron bunches. In this scheme a special chicane and a radio-frequency deflecting cavity are used to transform the beam’s longitudinal distribution into angular distribution which is further converted to transverse distribution after a parallel-to-point imaging beam line. With this technique, the temporal profile of the electron beam is exactly mapped to the transverse profile. This makes it possible to measure ultrashort electron bunch length with a resolution well beyond 1 femtosecond.

We have developed two new gas switches that are designed to be used with linear transformer drivers. The switches, which can be DC charged to 200 kV and triggered with less than a 2-ns $1\mathrm{\text{−}}\sigma$ jitter, have overall inductances ranging from 69 to 85 nH. When transferring 400 J of energy per shot, the switches have lifetimes in excess of 5000 shots. The two switches are insulated with 130–270 PSIA of air and are submerged in transformer oil during operation. These switches should allow development of linear transformer drivers that are more compact and have higher peak power.

Future accelerators require unprecedented cavity performance, which is strongly influenced by interior surface nanosmoothness. Electropolishing (EP) is the technique of choice being developed for high-field superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities. Previous study has shown that the mechanism of Nb electropolishing proceeds by formation and dissolution of a compact salt film under fluorine diffusion-limited mass transport control. We pursue an improved understanding of the microscopic conditions required for optimum surface finishing. The viscosity of the standard electrolyte has been measured using a commercial viscometer, and the diffusion coefficient of fluorine was derived at a variety of temperatures from 0 to $50°\mathrm{C}$ using a Nb rotating disk electrode. In addition, data indicate that electrode kinetics becomes competitive with the mass transfer current limitation and increases dramatically with temperature. These findings are expected to guide the optimization of EP process parameters for achieving controlled, reproducible, and uniform nanosmooth surface finishing of SRF cavities.

Integrable systems appeared in physics long ago at the onset of classical dynamics with examples being Kepler’s and other famous problems. Unfortunately, the majority of nonlinear problems turned out to be nonintegrable. In accelerator terms, any 2D nonlinear nonintegrable mapping produces chaotic motion and a complex network of stable and unstable resonances. Nevertheless, in the proximity of an integrable system the full volume of such a chaotic network is small. Thus, the integrable nonlinear motion in accelerators has the potential to introduce a large betatron tune spread to suppress instabilities and to mitigate the effects of space charge and magnetic field errors. To create such an accelerator lattice, one has to find magnetic and electric field combinations leading to a stable integrable motion. This paper presents families of lattices with one invariant where bounded motion can be easily created in large volumes of the phase space. In addition, it presents three families of integrable nonlinear accelerator lattices, realizable with longitudinal-coordinate-dependent magnetic or electric fields with the stable nonlinear motion, which can be solved in terms of separable variables.

We present an extension of the calculation of dipole-mode driven beam break-up instabilities, as calculated in [V. Volkov, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 12, 011301 (2009); V. Volkov, J. Knobloch, and A. Matveenko, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams (to be published)], to the monopole fundamental mode passband. The excitation of these modes has been observed in 9-cell TESLA cavities on test stands without beam [G. Kreps et al., Proceedings of SRF2009 (HZB, Berlin, Germany, 2009), pp. 289–291] and the same effect has been observed in klystrons with high DC currents.

Three-dimensional simulation of harmonic up-conversion in a free-electron laser amplifier operating simultaneously with two cold and relativistic electron beams with different energy is presented in the steady-state regime. The fundamental resonance of the higher energy beam is adjusted at the third harmonic of the lower energy beam. By using slowly varying envelope approximation, the hyperbolic wave equations can be transformed into parabolic diffusion equations. By applying the source-dependent expansion to these equations, electromagnetic fields are represented in terms of the Hermite Gaussian modes which are well suited for the planar wiggler configuration. The electron dynamics is described by the fully three-dimensional Lorentz force equation in the presence of the realistic planar magnetostatic wiggler and electromagnetic fields. A set of coupled nonlinear first-order differential equations is derived and solved numerically. This set of equations describes self-consistently the longitudinal spatial dependence of radiation waists, curvatures, and amplitudes together with the evaluation of the electron beam. The evolutions of the transverse modes, in this system, are investigated for the fundamental resonance and its harmonic up-conversion. In addition to uniform beam, prebunched electron beam has also been studied. The effect of sinusoidal distribution of entry times for low energy electron beam on the evolution of radiation is compared with water bag distribution. It is shown that prebunching reduces the saturation length substantially. The analysis is related to extreme ultraviolet and x-ray emission where by seeding the lower frequency of the fundamental resonance of the lower energy beam substantial power is obtained at its third harmonic.

EUROTRANS is a European research program for the transmutation of high level nuclear waste in an accelerator-driven system (ADS). As proposed, the driver linac needs to deliver a 2.5–4 mA, 600 MeV continuous-wave (CW) proton beam and later a 20 mA, 800 MeV one to the spallation target in the prototype-scale and industrial-scale demonstration phases, respectively. This paper is focusing on the conceptual studies performed with respect to the 17 MeV injector. First, the special beam dynamics strategies and methods, which have been developed and applied to design a current-variable injector up to 30 mA for allowing an easy upgrade without additional R&D costs, will be introduced. Then the error study made for evaluating the tolerance limits of the designed injector will be presented as well.

A scaling fixed field alternating gradient (FFAG) accelerator provides large momentum acceptance despite the fact that magnetic guiding fields are constant in time. Optical functions are identical over the large momentum range as well. We have designed a straight beam transport line (BTL) using a scaling FFAG type magnet which has a field profile of $y^k$, where $y$ is the horizontal coordinate and $k$ is the magnetic field index. This FFAG-BTL has very large momentum acceptance and optical functions that, practically speaking, do not depend on momentum. We also designed a dispersion suppressor at the end of the line by combining unit cells with a different field index $k$ so that the momentum dependence of orbit location should be eliminated at the exit. An obvious application of this design is the BTL after an FFAG accelerator to a patient in a hadron therapy facility or to a target in general. This could be an alternative to the conventional BTL with solenoids or quadrupoles because of the strong focusing nature of a quadrupole and the large momentum acceptance like a solenoid.

At the European X-ray Free Electron Laser there is a planar undulator system under construction called SASE3, which produces intense linearly polarized light in the wavelength range from 0.4–1.6 nm. Nevertheless there is a strong demand for circularly polarized radiation in this wavelength range. An important part of a potential solution is described in this paper. After the planar undulator the electron beam, which is completely bunched, is sent through a suitable radiator. This can be an economically and technically convenient method to generate radiation with polarization properties, which are determined only by the radiator. If in addition a bend is used to separate the light created by the linear SASE3 from that of the radiator, two beam lines may be served, one with planar and one with circular radiation. In this case the light of the helical radiator is not contaminated by the light generated by the planar system. In order to obtain coherent radiation in the radiator, the microbunching of the planar undulator must be preserved throughout the bend. This is the basic problem. In this paper a fundamental, basic study is made. Several solutions for bending systems are presented, whose complexities, wavelength ranges, and debunching effects are different. The expected circular polarization and radiation power by such a bend are simulated for a model radiator.

The low level rf system for the superconducting Darmstadt electron linear accelerator (S-DALINAC) developed 20 years ago and operating since converts the 3 GHz signals from the cavities down to the baseband and not to an intermediate frequency. While designing the new, digital rf control system this concept was kept: the rf module does the $I/Q$ and amplitude modulation/demodulation while the low frequency board, housing an field programmable gate array analyzes and processes the signals. Recently, the flexibility of this concept was realized: By replacing the modulator/demodulators on the rf module, cavities operating at frequencies other than the one of the S-DALINAC can be controlled with only minor modifications: A 6 GHz version, needed for a harmonic bunching system at the S-DALINAC and a 324 MHz solution to be used on a room temperature cavity at GSI, are currently under design. This paper reviews the concept of the digital low level rf control loops in detail and reports on the results gained during first operation with a superconducting cavity.

Bunch length and energy-$z$ correlation measurements were performed on the high energy (28.5 GeV) electron test beam of the A-line and End Station A (ESA) facilities at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The longitudinal profile of each bunch was measured by imaging the synchrotron light emitted as the electrons traversed a highly dispersive bend after being streaked by a transverse rf deflecting cavity. In addition, high frequency diodes and pyroelectric detectors placed at a ceramic gap in the beam line were used to measure the length of the bunch in ESA.

Electropolishing (EP) in the $\mathrm{HF}\mathrm{\text{−}}{\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4$ electrolyte is the most desirable surface treatment for niobium superconducting radio frequency cavities yet demonstrated, in terms of performance and surface finish. However, the efficiency of the electrolyte declines quickly with time (decrease in removal rate, deterioration of the niobium surface, increased sulfur generation). Previous studies at CEA Saclay have highlighted the impact of the water content in EP mixtures rather than the content of dissolved niobium. Knowledge of the electrochemical system was improved thanks to studies using a rotating disk electrode (RDE). Measurements with a RDE give precious information concerning mass transport of the different ionic groups present in the solution. The performed measurements prove that EP is controlled by the diffusion of fluorine ions and the value of the related diffusion coefficient ${\mathrm{D}}_{\mathrm{F}-}$ was estimated for different mixtures. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements were also performed with different EP mixtures. Both volt ampere metric and EIS measurements prove the central role of fluorine during EP and show that EP mechanisms evolve with the aging of the bath. Another major problem related to electrolytes is the formation of impurities such as sulfur. We have proved that working at a reduced voltage of 5 V does not alter cavity performance and makes it possible to reduce the undesirable particulate contamination in electrolytes and to increase their lifetime.

Free-electron lasers operating in the UV or x-ray radiation spectrum require peak beam currents that are generally higher than those obtainable by present electron sources, thus making bunch compression necessary. Compression, however, may heighten the effects of collective forces and degrade the beam quality. In this paper we provide a framework for investigating some of these effects in rf compressors by focusing on the longitudinal dynamics of small-amplitude density perturbations, which have the potential to cause the disruptive appearance of the so-called microbunching instability. We develop a linear theory valid for low-to-moderate compression factors under the assumption of a 1D impedance model of longitudinal space charge and provide validation against macroparticle simulations.

The emittance of a photocathode is evaluated using a distribution function (“Moments”) approach to calculate the moments of the momentum. The effects of temperature and field, which affect the electron distribution and transmission probability, respectively, of electrons incident on the surface barrier, are found. The resulting formulations of emittance are compared to the asymptotic limit found by D. H. Dowell and J. F. Schmerge [Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 12, 074201 (2009)], and their formulation is shown to be more generally applicable than the approximations within it would indicate for metals. The methodology is extended to develop an asymptotic emittance estimate for semiconductor photocathodes.

In accelerators, the electron beam longitudinal dynamics critically depend on the energy distribution of the beam. Noninvasive, highly accurate measurement of the energy spread of the electron beam in the storage ring remains a challenge. Conventional techniques are limited to measuring a relatively large energy spread using the energy spread induced broadening effect of radiation source size or radiation spectrum. In this work, we report a versatile method to accurately measure the electron beam relative energy spread from ${10}^{-4}$ to ${10}^{-2}$ using the optical klystron radiation. A novel numerical method based on the Gauss-Hermite expansion has been developed to treat both spectral broadening and modulation on an equal footing. A large dynamic range of the measurement is realized by properly configuring the optical klystron. In addition, a model-based scheme has been developed for the first time to compensate the beam-emittance-induced inhomogeneous spectral broadening effect to improve the accuracy of the energy spread measurement. Using this technique, we have successfully measured the relative energy spread of the electron beam in the Duke storage ring from $6\times {10}^{-4}$ to $6\times {10}^{-3}$ with an overall uncertainty of less than 5%. The optical klystron is a powerful diagnostic for highly accurate energy spread measurement for storage rings and other advanced electron accelerators.

Laser acceleration due to the nonlinear-threshold phenomena of charged particle “reflection” and capture by slowed wave in a magnetic undulator is considered. The obtained numerical results prove the particle reflection and capture phenomena in the field of actual laser pulses with temporal and space profiles which lead to the particles acceleration. In contrast to the reflection regime where particle acceleration takes place already at the constant undulator step, in the capture regime it is necessary to increase adiabatically the undulator step along the laser pulse propagation direction by the certain self-consistent variation law corresponding to acceleration rate.

Many proposals for next generation light sources based on single pass free electron lasers or energy recovery linac facilities require a continuous wave (cw) driven superconducting linac. The effective beam loading in such machines is very small and in principle the cavities can be operated at a bandwidth of a few Hz and with less than a few kW of rf power. However, a power reserve is required to ensure field stability. A major error source is the mechanical microphonics detuning of the niobium cavities. To understand the influence of cavity detuning on longitudinal beam stability, a measurement program has been started at the horizontal cavity test facility HoBiCaT at HZB to study TESLA-type cavities. The microphonics detuning spectral content, peak detuning values, and the driving terms for these mechanical oscillations have been analyzed. In combination with the characterization of cw-adapted fast tuning systems based on the piezoelectric effect this information has been used to design a detuning compensation algorithm. It has been shown that a compensation factor between 2–7 is achievable, reducing the typical detuning of 2–3 Hz rms to below 0.5 Hz rms. These results were included in rf-control simulations of the cavities, and it was demonstrated that a phase stability below 0.02° can be achieved.

Using multidimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we show that the magnetic undulator-type field of the plasma magnetostatic mode is indeed produced by the interaction of a laser pulse with a relativistic ionization front, as predicted by linear theory for a cold plasma. When the front with this magnetostatic mode is followed by a relativistic electron beam, the interaction of the beam with this magnetic field produces FEL-type synchrotron radiation, providing a direct signature of the magnetostatic mode. The possibility of generating readily detectable ultrashort wavelength radiation using this mode, by employing state-of-the-art laser systems, is demonstrated, thus opening the way towards experimental observation of the hitherto unseen magnetostatic mode and the use of this plasma FEL mechanism to provide a source of high-brilliance ultrashort wavelength radiation.

We present a Monte Carlo method implementation in the code elegant for simulating Touschek scattering effects in a linac beam. The local scattering rate and the distribution of scattered electrons can be obtained from the code either for a Gaussian-distributed beam or for a general beam whose distribution function is given. In addition, scattered electrons can be tracked through the beam line and the local beam-loss rate and beam halo information recorded.