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The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is an x-ray Free-Electron Laser (FEL) project presently in a commissioning phase at SLAC. We report here on very low emittance measurements made at low bunch charge, and a few femtosecond bunch length produced by the LCLS bunch compressors. Start-to-end simulations associated with these beam parameters show the possibilities of generating hundreds of GW at 1.5Å x-ray wavelength and nearly a single longitudinally spike at 1.5 nm with 2-fs duration.

The proposed International Linear Collider (ILC) is well-suited for discovering physics beyond the Standard Model and for precisely unraveling the structure of the underlying physics. The physics return can be maximized by the use of polarized beams. This report shows the paramount role of polarized beams and summarizes the benefits obtained from polarizing the positron beam, as well as the electron beam. The physics case for this option is illustrated explicitly by analyzing reference reactions in different physics scenarios. The results show that positron polarization, combined with the clean experimental environment provided by the linear collider, allows to improve strongly the potential of searches for new particles and the identification of their dynamics, which opens the road to resolve shortcomings of the Standard Model. The report also presents an overview of possible designs for polarizing both beams at the ILC, as well as for measuring their polarization.2

The very bright electron beam required for an x-ray free-electron laser (FEL), such as the linac coherent light source (LCLS), is susceptible to a microbunching instability in the magnetic bunch compressors, prior to the FEL undulator. The uncorrelated electron energy spread in the LCLS can be increased by an order of magnitude to provide strong Landau damping against the instability without degrading the FEL 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. In this paper, we report detailed measurements of laser-heater-induced energy spread, including the unexpected self-heating phenomenon when the laser energy is very low. We discuss the suppression of the microbunching instability with the laser heater and its impact on the x-ray FEL performance. We also present the analysis of these experimental results and develop a threedimensional longitudinal space charge model to explain the self-heating effect.