We propose a scheme that combines the echo-enabled harmonic generation technique with the bunch compression and allows one to generate harmonic numbers of a few hundred in a microbunched beam through up-conversion of the frequency of an ultraviolet seed laser. A few-cycle intense laser is used to generate the required energy chirp in the beam for bunch compression and for selection of an attosecond x-ray pulse. Sending this beam through a short undulator results in an intense isolated attosecond x-ray pulse. Using a representative realistic set of parameters, we show that 1 nm x-ray pulse with peak power of a few hundred MW and duration as short as 20 attoseconds (FWHM) can be generated from a 200 nm ultraviolet seed laser. The proposed scheme may enable the study of electronic dynamics with a resolution beyond the atomic unit of time ($\sim 24$ attoseconds) and may open a new regime of ultrafast sciences.

We study, experimentally and numerically, the relaxation of an initially nonuniform intense beam in an alternating-gradient transport line. A nonlinear distribution consisting of five interacting beamlets is created and tracked for longer than seven plasma periods with the help of tomographic phase-space mapping. Emittance growth is initially rapid, but slows down as the nonuniform distribution homogenizes in a few plasma periods. Both growth rates are found to depend on the beam current.

In this article we present the design and test results of the most powerful, fast linear transformer driver (LTD) stage developed to date. This 1-MA LTD stage consists of 40 parallel RLC (resistor R, inductor L, and capacitor C) circuits called “bricks” that are triggered simultaneously; it is able to deliver $\sim 1\mathrm{MA}$ current pulse with a rise time of $\sim 100\mathrm{ns}$ into the $\sim 0.1\mathrm{\text{−}}\mathrm{Ohm}$ matched load. The electrical behavior of the stage can be predicted by using a simple RLC circuit, thus simplifying the designing of various LTD-based accelerators. Five 1-MA LTD stages assembled in series into a module have been successfully tested with both resistive and vacuum electron-beam diode loads.

The shape of an rf pulse is distorted due to dispersion encountered in acceleration through traveling-wave linear accelerator structures. Simulations are made to ascertain the severity of this distortion in cavities designed to operate at various group velocities. The pulse suffers maximum degradation when propagated through accelerating cavities with a phase advance per cell in the vicinity of $\pi$, where the group velocity reaches its minimum value. Several cavities are simulated to study the pulse distortion and compared with experiments performed on a high phase advance structure H60VG3, which has a phase advance of $5\pi /6$ per cell. A circuit model and a mode matching code are used to perform these simulations on accelerating structures consisting of multiple cells. Beam loading is taken into account and the implications on energy dispersion are also analyzed. Means of mitigating for this energy deviation are discussed.

The effects of experimental variations in the synchronization, laser power, and plasma density on the final beam parameters of externally injected electrons accelerated in a plasma wave are studied using a hybrid model. This model combines a relativistic fluid description of the plasma wave generated by the laser pulse with particle tracking of the accelerated electrons. For cases in which the effects of beam loading and laser depletion can be neglected, the two parts can be separated, allowing a significant reduction in computational power needed compared to particle in cell codes. Two different approaches to externally injecting electrons into plasma waves are studied: In the first case, the electrons are injected behind a laser pulse with $a_0=0.32$. In the second case, electrons are injected in front of the laser pulse in three different laser regimes $a_0=0.32$, $a_0=0.56$, and $a_0=1.02$, ranging from linear to nonlinear. For these four cases, the effects of expected experimental variations in synchronization ($\pm 500\mathrm{fs}$), laser power ($\pm 10\%$), and plasma density ($\pm 30\%$) are studied. From these simulations, it becomes clear that in some cases, even a small variation in one of these parameters can create a large change in the final energy, energy spread, and trapped charge. For lower laser intensities, the method of injecting behind the laser pulse is the least sensitive to fluctuations while injection in front of the laser pulse becomes less sensitive at higher intensities.

It is discovered that, for a high intensity beam, the $4\sigma =360°$ (or $4\nu =1$) resonance of a linear accelerator is manifested through the octupolar term of space charge potential when the depressed phase advance per cell $\sigma$ is close to and below 90° but no resonance effect is observed when $\sigma$ is just above 90°. To verify that this is a resonance, a frequency analysis is performed and a study of resonance crossing from above and from below the resonance is conducted. It is observed that this fourth order resonance is dominating over the better known envelope instability and practically replacing it. The simulation study shows a clear emittance growth by this resonance and its stop band. A proposal to GSI was made to perform an experiment to measure the stop band of this resonance using the UNILAC. The experiment confirmed this resonance and will be published in a separate paper.

A random noise-induced beam degradation that could affect intense beam transport over long propagation distances has been experimentally investigated by making use of the transverse beam dynamics equivalence between an alternating-gradient focusing system and a linear Paul trap system. For the present study, machine imperfections in the quadrupole focusing lattice are considered, which are emulated by adding small random noise on the voltage waveform of the quadrupole electrodes in the Paul trap. It is observed that externally driven noise continuously increases the rms radius, transverse emittance, and nonthermal tail of the trapped charge bunch almost linearly with the duration of the noise. The combined effects of collective modes and colored noise are also investigated and compared with numerical simulations.

Typical high-energy negative ion electrostatic accelerators such as the ones designed for fusion applications produce a significant amount of secondary particles. These particles may originate from coextracted electrons, which flow from the ion source, impacting the accelerator grids or as by-products of collisions between accelerated negative ions and the residual background gas, in the accelerator. Secondary emission particles may carry a non-negligible power and consequently must be precisely studied. The electrostatic-accelerator-Monte-Carlo-simulation code (EAMCC) [G. Fubiani et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 11, 014202 (2008)] was developed in order to provide a three-dimensional characterization of power and current deposition on all parts of the accelerator. The code includes all the relevant physics associated with secondary emission processes and consequently may be used as a tool for design improvement. In this paper, the two accelerator designs considered for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, that is, the multiaperture-multigrid and the single gap single aperture (SINGAP) designs, are discussed and their predicted performances compared. Simulations have been compared with measurements on prototype accelerators of the SINGAP type. Reasonable agreement between EAMCC calculations and measurements of backstreaming ions and transmitted electrons was found.

Positron trapping and acceleration in a plasma wake using a four-bunch scheme [X. Wang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 124801 (2008)] is numerically investigated through 2D particle-in-cell simulations. This scheme that integrates positron generation, trapping, and acceleration into a single stage is a promising approach for investigating positron acceleration in an electron-beam-driven wake. It consists of a plasma with an embedded thin foil target into which two closely spaced electron beams are shot. The first beam creates a region for accelerating and focusing positrons and the second beam provides positrons to be accelerated. Some of the outstanding issues related to the quality of the accelerated positron beam load are discussed as a function of the beam and plasma parameters. Simulations show that a large number of positrons (${10}^7–{10}^8$) can be trapped when the plasma wake is modestly nonlinear, and the positron-generating foil target must be immersed into the plasma. Beam loading can reduce the energy spread of the positron beam load. The quality of the positron beam load is not very sensitive to the exact bunch spacing between the drive electron bunch and the positron beam load.

Studies of the longitudinal beam dynamics in the small isochronous ring (SIR) at Michigan State University revealed a fast, space-charge driven instability that did not fit the model of the negative mass instability. The observed beam behavior can be explained by the transverse horizontal component of the coherent space-charge force and its effect on the longitudinal motion. This force effectively modifies the slip factor, shifting the isochronous point and enhancing the negative mass instability. This paper presents results of numerical and experimental studies of the longitudinal beam dynamics in SIR and proposes a simple analytical model explaining these results.

High-gain free-electron lasers (FELs) in the ultraviolet and x-ray regime put stringent demands on the peak current, transverse emittance, and energy spread of the driving electron beam. At the soft x-ray FEL FLASH, a transverse deflecting microwave structure (TDS) has been installed to determine these parameters for the longitudinally compressed bunches, which are characterized by a narrow leading peak of high charge density and a long tail. The rapidly varying electromagnetic field in the TDS deflects the electrons vertically and transforms the time profile into a streak on an observation screen. The bunch current profile was measured single shot with an unprecedented resolution of 27 fs under FEL operating conditions. A precise single-shot measurement of the energy distribution along a bunch was accomplished by using the TDS in combination with an energy spectrometer. Variation of quadrupole strengths allowed for a determination of the horizontal emittance as a function of the longitudinal position within a bunch, the so-called slice emittance. In the bunch tail, a normalized slice emittance of about $2\mu \mathrm{m}$ was found, in agreement with expectations. In the leading spike, however, surprisingly large emittance values were observed, in apparent contradiction with the low emittance deduced from the measured FEL gain. By applying three-dimensional phase space tomography, we were able to show that the bunch head contains a central core of low emittance and high local current density, which is presumably the lasing part of the bunch.

The linear transformer driver (LTD) is a new method for constructing high current, high-voltage pulsed accelerators. The salient feature of the approach is switching and inductively adding the pulses at low voltage straight out of the capacitors through low inductance transfer and soft iron core isolation. Sandia National Laboratories are actively pursuing the development of a new class of accelerator based on the LTD technology. Presently, the high current LTD experimental research is concentrated on two aspects: first, to study the repetition rate capabilities, reliability, reproducibility of the output pulses, switch prefires, jitter, electrical power and energy efficiency, and lifetime measurements of the cavity active components; second, to study how a multicavity linear array performs in a voltage adder configuration relative to current transmission, energy and power addition, and wall plug to output pulse electrical efficiency. Here we report the repetition rate and lifetime studies performed in the Sandia High Current LTD Laboratory. We first utilized the prototype $\sim 0.4\mathrm{\text{−}}\mathrm{MA}$, LTD I cavity which could be reliably operated up to $\pm 90\mathrm{\text{−}}\mathrm{kV}$ capacitor charging. Later we obtained an improved 0.5-MA, LTD II version that can be operated at $\pm 100\mathrm{kV}$ maximum charging voltage. The experimental results presented here were obtained with both cavities and pertain to evaluating the maximum achievable repetition rate and LTD cavity performance. The voltage adder experiments with a series of double sized cavities (1 MA, $\pm 100\mathrm{kV}$) will be reported in future publications.

We have shown that a seventh-order inverse-free-electron laser (IFEL) interaction, where the radiation frequency is the seventh harmonic of the fundamental resonant frequency, can microbunch a beam of relativistic electrons inside an undulator. Using coherent transition radiation (CTR) emitted by the bunched 12.3 MeV beam as a diagnostic, strong microbunching of the beam is inferred from the observation of CTR at the first, second, and third harmonics of the seed $10\mu \mathrm{m}$ radiation. Three-dimensional IFEL simulations show that the observed harmonic ratios can be explained only if transverse spatial distribution of the steepened bunched beam is taken into account.

Multi-GeV trapped electron bunches in a plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) are observed with normalized transverse emittance divided by peak current, ${ϵ}_{N,x}/I_t$, below the level of $0.2\mu \mathrm{m}/\mathrm{kA}$. A theoretical model of the trapped electron emittance, developed here, indicates that emittance scales inversely with the square root of the plasma density in the nonlinear “bubble” regime of the PWFA. This model and simulations indicate that the observed values of ${ϵ}_{N,x}/I_t$ result from multi-GeV trapped electron bunches with emittances of a $\mathrm{\text{few}}\mu \mathrm{m}$ and multi-kA peak currents.

In a laser-pumped x-ray free-electron laser (FEL) an intense laser field replaces the magnetic wiggler field of a conventional FEL. Depending on the intensity and quality of both the electron beam and pump laser, the Thomson backscattered radiation can be coherently amplified. In a conventional FEL the generation of x rays requires electron beam energies in the multi-GeV range. In a laser-pumped x-ray FEL, electron beam energies in the multi-MeV range would be sufficient. To generate coherent x rays with this mechanism a number of physics and technology issues must be addressed. Foremost among these are the stringent requirements placed on the electron beam quality and brightness as well as on the pump laser. The seed radiation for the laser-pumped FEL is the laser-induced spontaneous radiation. The evolution of incoherent radiation into coherent radiation as well as the power gain lengths associated with the coherent x rays are analyzed and discussed. There is excellent agreement between our analytical results and GENESIS simulations for the radiated power, gain length, conversion efficiency, linewidth, and saturation length. These issues, as well as others, necessary to achieve coherent amplified x rays in a laser-pumped FEL are discussed. While a coherent x-ray source would have a number of attractive features, the requirements placed on both the electron beam and pump laser are extremely challenging.

In this paper, we give a complete analytical solution for wakefields generated by an azimuthally symmetric ring beam propagating in a coaxial two-channel dielectric structure. This wakefield can be used to accelerate a witness beam in the central channel. The ratio of the peak accelerating field in the center channel to the decelerating field in the ring channel (defined as transformer ratio $R$) is also derived. We find that, by appropriate choice of parameters, $R$ can be much greater than 2, the limiting value for collinear wakefield accelerators.

The Kapchinskij-Vladimirskij equations are widely used to study the evolution of the beam envelopes in a periodic system of quadrupole focusing cells. In this paper, we analyze the case of a matched beam. Our model is analogous to that used by Courant and Snyder [E. D. Courant and H. S. Snyder, Ann. Phys. (Paris) 3, 1 (1958)], who obtained a first-order approximate solution for a synchrotron. Here, we treat a linear machine and obtain an exact solution. The model uses a full occupancy, piecewise-constant focusing function and neglects space charge. There are solutions in an infinite number of bands as the focus strength is increased. All these bands are stable. Our explicit results for the phase advance $\sigma$ and the envelopes $a(z)$ and $b(z)$ are exact for all phase advances except multiples of 180°, where the behavior is singular. We find that the peak envelope size is minimized for $\sigma \sim 81°$. Actual operation in the higher bands would require very large, very accurate field strengths and would produce significantly larger envelope excursions. If such operation were found to be feasible, there would be interesting applications which we discuss.

A new method is proposed to produce identical beam emittances in the transverse phase planes from a severely asymmetric beam extracted from a slow-cycling synchrotron. This is important to obtain a good beam distribution at the irradiation spot when the spot scanning method is used for the treatment in hadron therapy. The method makes use of the beam rotation effect either by a solenoid or by a rotational quadrupole section, referred to as rotator, to produce identical emittances in the two transverse phase planes. It is also helpful for the stabilization of the beam spot at the irradiation point. Simulation studies with an artificially generated beam have been carried out to prove the principle. The method is not only applicable to fixed treatment nozzles but also to rotational gantry nozzles. Both a solenoid and a section of quadrupole rotator can be used, with the former being ideal for proton gantries and the latter for fixed carbon nozzles. There is a practical limit in using room-temperature solenoid due to the high beam rigidity in the case of a carbon beam, for which a superconducting solenoid has to be used. The comparison with other methods and the practical applications of the method are also presented.