The Linac Coherent Light Source is a SASE x-ray free-electron laser (FEL) project presently under construction at SLAC [J. Arthur et al., SLAC-R-593, 2002.]. The injector section, from drive laser and rf photocathode gun through first bunch compressor chicane, was installed in the fall of 2006. The initial system commissioning with an electron beam was completed in August of 2007, with the goal of a 1.2-micron emittance in a 1-nC bunch demonstrated. The second phase of commissioning, including second bunch compressor and full linac, is planned for 2008, with FEL commissioning in 2009. We report experimental results and experience gained in the first phase of commissioning, including the photocathode drive laser, rf gun, photocathode, S-band and X-band rf systems, first bunch compressor, and the various beam diagnostics.

No abstract

In this paper, we present a three-dimensional quasistatic model for high brightness beam dynamics simulation in rf/dc photoinjectors, rf linacs, and similar devices on parallel computers. In this model, electrostatic space-charge forces within a charged particle beam are calculated self-consistently at each time step by solving the three-dimensional Poisson equation in the beam frame and then transforming back to the laboratory frame. When the beam has a large energy spread, it is divided into a number of energy bins or slices so that the space-charge forces are calculated from the contribution of each bin and summed together. Image-charge effects from conducting photocathode are also included efficiently using a shifted-Green function method. For a beam with large aspect ratio, e.g., during emission, an integrated Green function method is used to solve the three-dimensional Poisson equation. Using this model, we studied beam transport in one Linac Coherent Light Sources photoinjector design through the first traveling wave linac with initial misalignment with respect to the accelerating axis.

In order to reach the high peak current required for an x-ray free electron laser, two separate magnetic dipole chicanes are used in the Linac Coherent Light Source accelerator to compress the electron bunch length in stages. In these bunch compressors, coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) can be emitted either by a short electron bunch or by any longitudinal density modulation that may be on the bunch. In this paper, we report detailed measurements of the CSR-induced energy loss and transverse emittance growth in these compressors. Good agreement is found between the experimental results and multiparticle tracking studies. We also describe direct observations of CSR at optical wavelengths and compare with analytical models based on beam microbunching.