• Z.R. Wolf, S.D. Anderson, V. Kaplounenko, Yu.I. Levashov, A.W. Weidemann
  SLAC, Menlo Park, California

The LCLS project at SLAC requires 40 undulators be tuned, fiducialized, and a final data set taken. The techniques used to do this work are presented. In addition, the quadrupoles between the undulators must be accurately fiducialized. A description of the quadrupole magnetic measurements and fiducialization is also presented.

• P. Emma, R.F. Boyce, A. Brachmann, R. Carr, F.-J. Decker, Y.T. Ding, D. Dowell, S.A. Edstrom, J.C. Frisch, A. Gilevich, G.R. Hays, P. Hering, Z. Huang, R.H. Iverson, Yu.I. Levashov, H. Loos, A. Miahnahri, H.-D. Nuhn, B.D. Poling, D.F. Ratner, J.L. Turner, J.J. Welch, W.E. White, Z.R. Wolf, J. Wu
  SLAC, Menlo Park, California
• S. Spampinati
  ELETTRA, Basovizza

Funding: Work supported by the U.S. Dept. of Energy contract #DE-AC02-76SF00515.

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is an x-ray Free-Electron Laser (FEL) project presently in a commissioning phase at SLAC. The very bright electron beam required for the FEL is also susceptible to a micro-bunching instability* in the magnetic bunch compressors, prior to the FEL undulator. The uncorrelated electron energy spread can be increased by an order of magnitude to provide strong Landau damping against the instability without degrading the free-electron laser performance. To this end, a ‘laser-heater’ system has been installed in the LCLS injector, which modulates the energy of a 135-MeV electron bunch with an IR laser beam in a short undulator, enclosed within a four-dipole chicane. The last half of the chicane time-smears the energy modulation leaving an effective thermal energy spread increase. We present the first commissioning results of this system, its operational issues, and its impact on the micro-bunching instability.

*Z. Huang et. al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 7, 074401 (2004).