• T. Plettner, S. Sinha, J. Wisdom
  Stanford University, Stanford, Califormia
• E.R. Colby
  SLAC, Menlo Park, California

Particle accelerators require precise phase control of the electric field through the entire accelerator structure. Thus a future laser driven particle accelerator will require optical synchronism between the high-peak power laser sources that power the accelerator. The precise laser architecture for a laser driven particle accelerator is not determined yet, however it is clear that the ability to phase-lock independent modelocked oscillators will be of crucial importance. We report the present status on our work to demonstrate long term phaselocking between two modelocked lasers to within one dregee of optical phase and describe the optical synchronization techniques that we employ.

• J.E. Spencer, E.R. Colby, R.J. Noble, D.T. Palmer, R. Siemann
  SLAC, Menlo Park, California

The NLC Test Accelerator at SLAC was built to address various beam dynamics issues for the Next Linear Collider. An S-Band RF gun, originally proposed for the NLCTA, is being installed together with a large-angle extraction line at 60 MeV. This is followed by a matching section, final focus and buncher for the laser acceleration experiment, E163. The laser-electron interaction area is followed by a broad range, high resolution spectrometer (HES) for electron bunch analysis. The RF gun is discussed in another paper. We discuss only the beam dynamics and high resolution analysis system at 6 MeV based on using Parmela and high-order Transport for bunch charges from 50 pC to 1 nC. Beyond the diagnostics, this system uses the emittance compensating solenoids and a low energy, high resolution spectrometer (LES) to help tune for best operating point and match to the linac. Optical symmetries in the design of the 25.5° extraction line provide 1:1 phase space transfer without linear dispersion or use of sextupoles for a large, 6D phase space volume and range of input conditions. Tolerances and tuning sensitivities (knobs) for certain parts of the system are discussed.

• C.M.S. Sears, E.R. Colby, B.M. Cowan, R. Siemann, J.E. Spencer
  SLAC, Menlo Park, California
• R.L. Byer, T. Plettner
  Stanford University, Stanford, Califormia

The inverse Free Electron Laser (IFEL) interaction has recently been proposed and used as a short wavelength modulator forμbunching of beams for laser acceleration experiments*,**. These experiments utilized the fundamental of the interaction between the laser field and electron bunch. In the current experiment, we explore the higher order resonances of the IFEL interaction from a 3 period, 1.8 centimeter wavelength undulator with a picosecond, 0.25 mJ/pulse laser at 800 nm. The resonances are observed by adjusting the gap of the undulator while keeping the beam energy constant. We will also discuss diagnostics for obtaining beam overlap and statistical techniques used to account for machine drifts and analyze the data.

*W. D. Kimura, et. al., Phys. Rev. S.T. Acc. & Beams 4 101301 (2001). ** P. Musumeci, et. al., AAC 2004 Proceedings. Pg 170.

• T. Plettner, R.L. Byer, T.I. Smith
  Stanford University, Stanford, Califormia
• E.R. Colby, B.M. Cowan, C.M.S. Sears, R. Siemann, J.E. Spencer
  SLAC, Menlo Park, California

We have observed acceleration of relativistic electrons in vacuum driven by a linearly polarized laser beam incident on a thin gold-coated reflective boundary. The observed energy modulation effect follows all the characteristics expected for linear acceleration caused by a longitudinal electric field. As predicted by the Lawson-Woodward theorem the laser driven modulation only appears in the presence of the boundary. It shows a linear dependence with the strength of the electric field of the laser beam and also it is critically dependent on the laser polarization. Finally, it appears to follow the expected angular dependence of the inverse transition radiation process.