Beam dynamics in a high brightness linac for short wavelength SASE-FEL experiments

Short wavelength SASE-FEL requires generation and transport up to the undulator entrance of low emittance (~1–2 mm mrad) high peak current (~1–3 kA) electron beams with energy higher than 1 GeV. The propagation of such a high brightness beam takes place in a transition regime from space charge to emittance dominated dynamics, as the beam energy increases. In addition, in downstream magnetic compressor devices where the peak current increases up to kA range, the transition may occur again. Under these conditions, the electron beam has to be properly matched to the linac accelerating sections in order to keep under control emittance oscillations driven by residual space charge effects. Generalized invariant envelope matching conditions are discussed in this paper, showing that an equilibrium between RF focusing forces and space charge/emittance defocusing forces can be attained without any additional external focusing along the linac (no quadrupoles), thus reducing alignment problems and mitigating emittance dilutions due to misalignments and beam parameter jitters

Challenges in plasma and laser wakefield accelerated beams diagnostic

The new frontier in the particle beam accelerator is the so called plasma acceleration. Using the strong electric eld inside a plasma is possible to achieve accelerating gradients order of magnitude larger with respect to the actual technologies. Di erent schemes have been proposed and several already tested, producing beams of energy of several GeV. Mainly two approaches are followed: either the beam is directly produced by the interaction of a TW/PW class laser with a gas jet, or a preexisting particle beam is accelerated in a plasma channel. In both cases a precise determination of the emerging beam parameters is mandatory for the ne tuning of the devices. The measurement of these parameters, in particular the emittance, is not trivial, mainly due to the large energy spread and to the tight focusing of these beams or to the background noise produced in the plasma channel. We show the problems related to the diagnostic of this kind of beams and the proposed or already realized solutions

The THz Radiation Source at the SPARC Facility

The interest for Terahertz (THz) radiation is rapidly growing, both as it is a powerful tool for investigating the behavior of matter at low energy, and as it allows for a number of possible spectroscopic applications spanning from medical science to security. The linacdriven THz source at the SPARC facility can deliver broadband THz pulses with femtosecond shaping and can be used for electron beam diagnostics to fully reconstruct the longitudinal charge distribution. Beyond this application, the possibility to store much more energy in a single THz pulse than table-top sources renders the SPARC THz source very interesting for a spectroscopic use. In addition, taking advantage from electron beam manipulation techniques, high power, narrow-band THz radiation can be also generated. Those source characteristics provide a unique chance to realize THz-pump/THz-probe spectroscopy, a technique practically unexplored up to now

The Top-Implart Proton Linear Accelerator: Interim Characteristics of the 35 Mev Beam

In the framework of the Italian TOP-IMPLART project (Regione Lazio), ENEA-Frascati, ISS and IFO are developing and constructing the first proton linear accelerator based on an actively scanned beam for tumor radiotherapy with final energy of 150 MeV. An important feature of this accelerator is modularity: an exploitable beam can be delivered at any stage of its construction, which allows for immediate characterization and virtually continuous improvement of its performance. Currently, a sequence of 3 GHz accelerating modules combined with a commercial injector operating at 425 MHz delivers protons up to 35 MeV. Several dosimetry systems were used to obtain preliminary characteristics of the 35-MeV beam in terms of stability and homogeneity. Short-term stability and homogeneity better than 3% and 2.6%, respectively, were demonstrated; for stability an improvement with respect to the respective value obtained for the previous 27 MeV beam

PRESENT AND PERSPECTIVES OF THE SPARC THz SOURCE

The development of radiation sources in the Terahertz (THz) spectral region has become more and more interesting because of the peculiar characteristics of this radiation: it is non ionizing, it penetrates dielectrics, it is highly absorbed by polar liquids, highly reflected by metals and reveals specific “fingerprint”absorption spectra arising from fundamentals physical processes. The THz source at SPARC is a linac-based source for both longitudinal beam diagnostics and research investigations. Its measured peak power is of the order of 108 W, very competitive with respect to other present sources. The status of the THz radiation source, in particular its generation and properties, is presented and future perspectives are discusse

Phase space analysis of velocity bunched beams

Peak current represents a key demand for new generation electron beam photoinjectors. Many beam applications, such as free electron laser, inverse Compton scattering, terahertz radiation generation, have efficiencies strongly dependent on the bunch length and current. A method of beam longitudinal compression (called velocity bunching) has been proposed some years ago, based on beam longitudinal phase space rotation in a rf field potential. The control of such rotation can lead to a compression factor in excess of 10, depending on the initial longitudinal emittance. Code simulations have shown the possibility to fully compensate the transverse emittance growth during rf compression, and this regime has been experimentally proven recently at SPARC. The key point is the control of transverse beam plasma oscillations, in order to freeze the emittance at its lowest value at the end of compression. Longitudinal and transverse phase space distortions have been observed during the experiments, leading to asymmetric current profiles and higher final projected emittances. In this paper we discuss in detail the results obtained at SPARC in the regime of velocity bunching, analyzing such nonlinearities and identifying the causes. The beam degradation is discussed, both for slice and projected parameters. Analytical tools are derived to experimentally quantify the effect of such distortions on the projected emittanc

Overview of Plasma Lens Experiments and Recent Results at SPARC_LAB

Beam injection and extraction from a plasma module is still one of the crucial aspects to solve in order to produce high quality electron beams with a plasma accelerator. Proper matching conditions require to focus the incoming high brightness beam down to few microns size and to capture a high divergent beam at the exit without loss of beam quality. Plasma-based lenses have proven to provide focusing gradients of the order of kT/m with radially symmetric focusing thus promising compact and affordable alternative to permanent magnets in the design of transport lines. In this paper an overview of recent experiments and future perspectives of plasma lenses is reported