FLASH Photoinjector Laser Systems

Abstract

The free-electron laser facility FLASH at DESY (Hamburg, Germany) operates two undulator beamlines simultaneously for FEL operation and a third for plasma acceleration experiments (FLASHForward). The L-band superconducting technology allows accelerating fields of up to 0.8 ms in length at a repetition rate of 10 Hz (burst mode). A fast kicker-septum system picks one part of the 1 MHz electron bunch train and kicks it to the second beamline such that two beamlines are operated simultaneously with the full repetition rate of 10 Hz. The photoinjector operates three laser systems. They have different pulse durations and transverse shapes and are chosen to serve best for the given user experiment in terms of electron bunch charge, bunch compression, and bunch pattern. It is also possible to operate the laser systems on the same beamline to provide specific double pulses for certain type of experiments