Diagnostics for Electron Pulse Trains at SwissFEL Obtained by Energy Modulation in a Laser-Driven Dielectric Structure

Electron pulse trains with sub-femtosecond spike length offer novel possibilities to ultra-fast pump-probe experiments in free-electron lasers. The pulse train can be generated by an energy modulation which is converted to temporal bunching in a magnetic chicane. The source of the energy modulation is typically a resonant interaction with a co-propagating laser in a wiggler magnet. Alternatively, the modulation can be obtained by a dielectric laser accelerator (DLA). The implementation of the DLA modulation scheme at SwissFEL would be enabled by using the experimental chamber installed in the framework of the Accelerator-on-a-Chip International Program (ACHIP) and a magnetic chicane placed afterwards. In this contribution, we will focus on electron beam diagnostics for the DLA-modulated and compressed electron bunch train. Our simulation results predict that measuring the energy spread of the modulated beam and coherent diffraction radiation emitted from a foil with a hole provides a precise tool to characterize and optimize the laser-electron modulation. An absolute measurement of the longitudinal phase-space with a temporal rms-resolution of 350 as is possible with the planned X-band transverse deflecting cavity in Athos

Experience with short-period, small gap undulators at the SwissFEL aramis beamline

The SwissFEL Aramis beamline provides hard X-ray FEL radiation down to 1 Angström with 5.8 GeV and short period, 15mm, in-vacuum undulators (U15). To reach the maximum designed K-value of 1.8 the U15s have to be operated with vacuum gaps down to 3.0 mm. The thirteen-undulator modules are 4m long and each of them is equipped with a pair of permanent magnet quadrupoles at the two ends, aligned magnetically to the undulator axis. Optical systems and dedicated photon diagnostics are used to check the alignment and improve the K-value calibration. In this talk the main steps of the undulator commissioning will be recalled and a systematic comparison between the magnetic results and the electron and photon based measurements will be reported to highlight achievements and open issues.peer-reviewe

Reduction of the integrated odd multipoles in periodic magnets

Integrated multipoles may perturb the beam dynamics in accelerators. In particular in periodic magnets, as undulators and wigglers, only the odd orders in the U.S. notation have to be considered, because the other ones compensate themselves in each period of the magnet. In the past, several methods have been considered to reduce them, but, if their effects on the beam are very strong, because of the small particles energy and mass, and in long period magnets, a different solution has to be explored. The method proposed in this article consists in compensating the contribution to the integral of the region between the poles with the one of the pole regions in each semiperiod of the magnet. It will be shown that this condition can be achieved by displacing the magnetic axis in each semiperiod of the magnet. To demonstrate the validity of this approach, it has been applied and optimized on a real wiggler

Experimental validation for the compensation method of nonlinearities in periodic magnets

Nonlinearities from any periodic magnet in accelerators may strongly degrade the dynamics of the beams. This may be especially critical for magnets where the beam excursions are comparable to the good field region, as for example in wigglers, since the beam trajectory can be of the order of the pole width. A general method based on alternately shifting the magnetic axis of each pole to compensate this effect was proposed and applied to the DAΦNE wigglers, where an important integrated octupole was measured. This approach has been optimized by multipolar analyses and the effect on the beam dynamics verified by tracking studies. In this paper we report about the experimental validation of the magnetic model and the verification of the method by beam based measurements. The latter were performed after all the wigglers in the DAΦNE main rings had been modified according to the optimal configuration. These measurements were in agreement with the expectations and allowed experimentally proving the method

Generation of Large-Bandwidth X-Ray Free-Electron-Laser Pulses

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) are modern research tools in disciplines such as biology, material science, chemistry, and physics. Besides the standard operation that aims at minimizing the bandwidth of the produced XFEL radiation, there is a strong scientific demand to produce large-bandwidth XFEL pulses for several applications such as nanocrystallography, stimulated Raman spectroscopy, and multiwavelength anomalous diffraction. We present a self-consistent method that maximizes the XFEL pulse bandwidth by systematically maximizing the energy chirp of the electron beam at the undulator entrance. This is achieved by optimizing the compression scheme and the electron distribution at the source in an iterative back-and-forward tracking. Start-to-end numerical simulations show that a relative bandwidth of 3.25% full-width can be achieved for the hard x-ray pulses in the SwissFEL case

Measurements of copper and cesium telluride cathodes in a radio-frequency photoinjector

Radio-frequency (rf) photoinjectors are commonly used to generate intense bright electron beams for a wide range of applications, most notably as drivers for X-ray Free-Electron Lasers. The photocathode, mounted inside an rf gun and illuminated by a suitable laser, thereby plays a crucial role as the source of the electrons. The intrinsic emittance and the quantum efficiency of the electron source are determined by the properties of the photocathode’s surface material. We present measurements of the intrinsic emittance and the quantum efficiency performed with copper and cesium telluride cathodes in the same rf photoinjector, thus comparing, for the first time, the performance of metal and semiconductor cathodes under the same conditions. Our results are consistent with theoretical expectations and show that the difference in intrinsic emittance for the two types of material is not significant in view of accelerator applications. We conclude that cesium telluride photocathodes provide a much higher quantum efficiency at essentially negligible degradation in beam emittance

Measurements of intrinsic emittance dependence on rf field for copper photocathodes

Radio-frequency (rf) photoinjectors are used to generate high-brightness electron beams for a wide range of applications. Because of their outstanding beam quality, they are particularly well-suited as sources for X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs). The beam emittance, which is significantly influenced by the intrinsic emittance of the cathode, is fundamental for FELs, since it has a strong impact on the lasing performance and it defines the length and cost of the facility. In this paper we present measurements of the intrinsic emittance as a function of the rf field for a copper photocathode. Our measurements match with the theoretical expectations, showing that the intrinsic emittance can be reduced by decreasing the rf field at the cathode. We obtained normalized intrinsic emittances down to 350  nm/mm, the lowest values ever measured in a rf photoinjector

A New Interaction Region Design for the Super-B Factory

A final focus magnet design that uses super-ferric magnets is introduced for the SuperB interaction region. The baseline design has air-core super-conducting quadrupoles. This idea instead uses super-conducting wire in an iron yoke. The iron is in the shape of a Panofsky quadrupole and this allows two quadrupoles to be side-by-side with no intervening iron as long as the gradients of the two quads are equal. This feature allows us to move in as close as possible to the collision point and minimize the beta functions in the interaction region. The superferric design has advantages as well as drawbacks and we will discuss these in the paper