The CLIC electron and positron polarized sources

Abstract

The CLIC polarized electron source is based on a DC gun where the photocathode is illuminated by a laser beam. Each micro-bunch has a charge of 6x109 e−, a width of 100 ps and a repetition rate of 2 GHz. A peak current of 10 A in the micro-bunch is a challenge for the surface charge limit of the photo-cathode. Two options are feasible to generate the 2 GHz e− bunch train: 100 ps micro-bunches can be extracted from the photo-cathode either by a 2 GHz laser system or by generating a macro-bunch using a ~200 ns laser pulse and a subsequent RF bunching system to produce the appropriate micro-bunch structure. Recent results obtained by SLAC, for the latter case, are presented. The polarized positron source is based on a positron production scheme in which polarized photons are produced by a laser Compton scattering process. The resulting circularly-polarized gamma photons are sent onto a target, producing pairs of longitudinally polarized electrons and positrons. The Compton backscattering process occurs either in a Compton ring, where a 1 GeV electron beam interacts with circularly-polarized photons in an optical resonator or in a 1.8 GeV Compton Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) or in a 6 GeV Linac with several optical cavities. The undulator scheme is also studied. The nominal CLIC e+ bunch population is 6.7x109 particles per bunch at 200 MeV. The tradeoff between e+ yield and level of polarization is an important topic. The overal l scheme for both polarized electron and positron beams is described