Rome University La Sapienza, Roma
INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
ENEA C.R. Frascati, Frascati (Roma)
LBNL, Berkeley, California
Velocity bunching (or RF compression) represents a promising technique complementary to magnetic compression to achieve the high peak current required in the linac drivers for FELs. Here we report on recent progress aimed at characterizing the RF compression from the point of view of the microbunching instability. We emphasize the development of a linear theory for the gain function of the instability and its validation against macroparticle simulations that represents a useful tool in the evaluation of the compression schemes for FEL sources.
INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
ENEA C.R. Frascati, Frascati (Roma)
Rome University La Sapienza, Roma
LBNL, Berkeley, California
The effects of microbunching instability for the SPARX accelerator have been analyzed by means of different numerical simulation codes and analytical approach. The laser heater counteracting action has been also addressed in order to optimize the parameters of the compression system, either hybrid RF plus magnetic chicane or only magnetic, and possibly enhance the FEL performance.
INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Milano
UCLA, Los Angeles
JASRI/SPring-8, Hyogo-ken
Shining a photocathode at the same time with an UV laser able to extract electrons and an IR laser properly tuned could influence the way the electron beam is generated. Such a process is under investigation at SPARC, through direct measurements, as much as through computer codes assessment studies.
INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Milano
INFN-Roma II, Roma
ENEA C.R. Frascati, Frascati (Roma)
University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome
INFN-Roma, Roma
UCLA, Los Angeles, California
JASRI/SPring-8, Hyogo-ken
PSI, Villigen
The primary goal of the SPARC project is the commissioning of the SASE FEL operating at 500 nm driven by a 150-200 MeV high brightness photoinjector. Additional experiments are foreseen also in the HHG Seeded configuration at 266, 160 and 114 nm. A second beam line hosting a THz source has been recently commissioned. The recent successful operation of the SPARC injector in the Velocity Bunching (VB) mode has opened new perspectives to conduct advanced beam dynamics experiments with ultra-short electron pulses able to extend the THz spectrum and to drive the FEL in the SASE Single Spike mode. Moreover a new technique called Laser Comb, able to generate a train of short pulses with high repetition rate, as the one required to drive coherent plasma wake field excitation, has been tested in the VB configuration. The energy/density modulation produced by an infrared laser pulse interacting with the electron beam near the cathode has been also investigated. In this paper we report the experimental results obtained so far and the comparison with simulations.
INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Milano
Università di Roma I La Sapienza, Roma
INFN-Roma II, Roma
Università di Roma II Tor Vergata, Roma
University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome
Rome University La Sapienza, Roma
ENEA C.R. Frascati, Frascati (Roma)
The region of the spectrum from 0.3 to 5 THz is of great interest for several experiments in different areas of research. A THz radiation source can be produced at SPARC as coherent transition radiation emitted by either a compressed or longitudinally modulated beam intercepting a metal foil placed at 45° with respect to the beam propagation. Results on the characterization of the THz source at SPARC are described in the paper.
INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Milano
Rome University La Sapienza, Roma
ENEA C.R. Frascati, Frascati (Roma)
In the frame of the SPARC-X project, the energy of the Photo-Injector SPARC, in operation at INFN-LNF, will be upgraded from 180 to 250 MeV by replacing a low gradient S-band traveling wave accelerating section with two C-band units, designed and developed at LNF. The new system will consist of a 50 MW klystron, supplied by a pulsed modulator, to feed the high gradient C-band structures through a RF pulse compressor. This paper deals with the design of the full system, the C-band R&D activity and study of the related beam dynamics.
UCLA, Los Angeles, California
SLAC, Menlo Park, California
INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
USC, Los Angeles, California
Recent initiatives at UCLA concerning ultra-short, GeV electron beam generation have been aimed at achieving sub-fs pulses capable of driving X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) in single-spike mode. This uses of very low charge beams, which may allow existing FEL injectors to produce few-100 attosecond pulses, with very high brightness. Towards this end, recent experiments at the Stanford X-ray FEL (LCLS, first of its kind, built with essential UCLA leadership) have produced ~2 fs, 20 pC electron pulses. We discuss here extensions of this work, in which we seek to exploit the beam brightness in FELs, in tandem with new developments at UCLA in cryogenic undulator technology, to create compact accelerator/undulator systems that can lase below 0.15 Angstroms, or be used to permit 1.5 Angstrom operation at 4.5 GeV. In addition, we are now developing experiments which use the present LCLS fs pulses to excite plasma wakefields exceeding 1 TV/m, permitting a table-top TeV accelerator for frontier high energy physics applications.