Low energy operation of the DIAMOND light source

Abstract

Abstract Within the last decade storage ring free-electron lasers (SRFELs) have reached UV output wavelengths and beyond: several facilities have achieved down to 250nm and quite recently below 200nm. The design of DIAMOND, the third-generation replacement for the existing SRS light source at Daresbury Laboratory, has been optimised at 3 GeV to provide high quality output for the scientific community, mainly from a range of insertion devices. In this paper we propose an additional DIAMOND regime at 1-1.5 GeV in an attempt also to include an SRFEL which would be of major benefit to users needing high quality, high brightness UV/VUV radiation. Such variable ring operating energy will have significant implications, not least in achieving acceptable beam lifetimes. In addition, enhanced beam coherent instabilities (notably microwave) at low energy will affect the single bunch length (peak current) and energy spread which will in turn limit the achievable FEL gain. All these factors will have to be assessed in the detailed design stages of DIAMOND. DIAMOND LIGHT SOURCE The recent successful demonstration of an SRFEL on the ELETTRA light source [1], together with earlier experience at LURE (Super-ACO) and elsewhere, has encouraged interest in the incorporation of such advanced facilities in all leading light sources. The normal operating mode of DIAMOND at 3GeV is described in detail elsewhere FEL OPERATING MODE When operating in optimised FEL mode, the storage ring will be populated with bunches spaced apart in time by twice the round trip time in the FEL cavity, ensuring energy transfer occurs as frequently as possible; the cavity length is always chosen to be a sub-harmonic of the storage ring circumference, whilst satisfying other, practical constraints. The final circumference of the DIAMOND storage ring has not yet been fixed but may be finalised at 528 m (an increase on the present 489 m layout [2] to budget for additional elements), giving a harmonic number of 880 at 500 MHz RF frequency. With 8 equally spaced bunches this leads to a required cavity length of 33 m, which is reasonable (cf. the ELETTRA device which has a cavity length of 32.4 m [1]). Since a very small vertical emittance is not necessary for FEL operation, a conservative coupling value of 3% has been assumed for these calculations, which should both be readily achievable and provide a satisfactory Touschek lifetime; both greater coupling and larger emittance could be selected if necessary. The momentum acceptance will be the primary limit on the beam lifetime at low energies, via Touschek scattering and quantum lifetime; the 4% dynamic and physical acceptance limit specified for 3 GeV operation BUNCH MODELLING To provide peak currents of tens of Amperes, as will be needed for useful FEL gains, bunch currents of several milliamperes are required. At these currents the effects of bunch lengthening from potential well distortion (PWD) and from the microwave instability (MI) are large, but are beneficial in that they provide low enough number densities within the bunches to give an acceptable Touschek lifetime; however the issue is whether sufficient peak current can then be maintained, together with acceptable energy spread. The ZAP code [3] was used to predict the effect on bunch parameters of PWD and MI (details are given in [4]); however, the implementation of Brück's approximatio