A Critical Experimental Test of Synchrotron Radiation Theory with 3rd Generation Light Source

A recent "beam splitting" experiment at LCLS apparently demonstrated that after a microbunched electron beam is kicked on a large angle compared to the divergence of the FEL radiation, the microbunching wave front is readjusted along the new direction of motion of the kicked beam. Therefore, coherent radiation from an undulator placed after the kicker is emitted along the kicked direction without suppression. This strong emission of coherent undulator radiation in the kicked direction cannot be explained in the framework of conventional synchrotron radiation theory. In a previous paper we explained this puzzle. We demonstrated that, in accelerator physics, the coupling of fields and particles is based, on the one hand, on the use of results from particle dynamics treated according to the absolute time convention and, on the other hand, on the use of Maxwell equations treated according to the standard (Einstein) synchronization convention. Here lies the misconception which led to the strong qualitative disagreement between theory and experiment. After the "beam splitting" experiment at LCLS, it became clear that the conventional theory of synchrotron radiation cannot ensure the correct description of coherent and spontaneous emission from a kicked electron beam, nor the emission from a beam with finite angular divergence, in an undulator or a bending magnet. However, this result requires further experimental confirmation. In this publication we propose an uncomplicated and inexpensive experiment to test synchrotron radiation theory at 3rd generation light sources

Soft X-ray seeding studies for the SLAC Linac Coherent Light Source II

We present the results from studies of soft X-ray seeding options for the LCLS-II X-ray free electron laser (FEL) at SLAC. The LCLS-II will use superconducting accelerator technology to produce X-ray pulses at up to 1 MHz repetition rate using 4 GeV electron beams. If properly seeded, these pulses will be nearly fully coherent, and highly stable in photon energy, bandwidth, and intensity, thus enabling unique experiments with intense high-resolution soft X-rays. Given the expected electron beam parameters from start to end simulations and predicted FEL performance, our studies reveal echo enabled harmonic generation (EEHG) and soft X-ray self-seeding (SXRSS) as promising and complementary seeding methods. We find that SXRSS has the advantage of simplicity and will deliver 5-35 times higher spectral brightness than EEHG in the 1-2 nm range, but lacks some of the potential for phase-stable multipulse and multicolor FEL operations enabled by external laser seeding with EEHG

Photoionization of the Ne-like Si4+ ion in ground and metastable states in the 110–184-eV photon energy range

We present measurements of the absolute photoionization cross section of the neonlike Si4+ ion over the 110–184 eV photon energy range. The measurements were performed using two independent merged-beam setups at the super-ACO and ASTRID synchrotron-radiation facilities, respectively. Signals produced in the photoionization of the 2p subshell of the Si4+ ion both from the 2p6 1S0 ground state and the 2p53s 3P0,2 metastable levels were observed. Calculations of the 2p photoionization cross sections were carried out using a multi-configuration Dirac-Fock code. They give results in good agreement with the measured spectra. Comparison with other available theoretical results is also presented

Calculations on the production and use of superfine holographic X-ray gratings for astrophysical observations

Superfine holograhic X-ray gratings may be produced by transferring onto metal an interference pattern generated by two branches of a sufficiently coherent X-ray beam, emitted in the form of synchrotron radiation from high energy electron storage rings. Generation of the coherent beam requires restrictions on the beam size. A calculation is presented which allows an exact evaluation of this restriction. The effect of defocusing optics on the expected resolution is also studied