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Emittance Reduction of RF Photoinjector Generated Electron Beams by Transverse Laser Beam Shaping
2019, Gross, M., Qian, H.J., Boonpornprasert, P., Chen, Y., Good, J.D., Huck, H., Isaev, I., Koschitzki, C., Krasilnikov, M., Lal, S., Li, X., Lishilin, O., Loisch, G., Melkumyan, D., Mohanty, S.K., Niemczyk, R., Oppelt, A., Shaker, H., Shu, G., Stephan, F., Vashchenko, G., Will, I.
Laser pulse shaping is one of the key elements to generate low emittance electron beams with RF photoinjectors. Ultimately high performance can be achieved with ellipsoidal laser pulses, but 3-dimensional shaping is challenging. High beam quality can also be reached by simple transverse pulse shaping, which has demonstrated improved beam emittance compared to a transversely uniform laser in the 'pancake' photoemission regime. In this contribution we present the truncation of a Gaussian laser at a radius of approximately one sigma in the intermediate (electron bunch length directly after emission about the same as radius) photoemission regime with high acceleration gradients (up to 60 MV/m). This type of electron bunch is used e.g. at the European XFEL and FLASH free electron lasers at DESY, Hamburg site and is being investigated in detail at the Photoinjector Test facility at DESY in Zeuthen (PITZ). Here we present ray-tracing simulations and experimental data of a laser beamline upgrade enabling variable transverse truncation. Initial projected emittance measurements taken with help of this setup are shown, as well as supporting beam dynamics simulations. Additional simulations show the potential for substantial reduction of slice emittance at PITZ. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
Propagation-assisted generation of intense few-femtosecond high-harmonic pulses
2020, Major, B., Kretschmar, M., Ghafur, O., Hoffmann, A., Kovács, K., Varjú, K., Senfftleben, B., Tümmler, J., Will, I., Nagy, T., Rupp, D., Vrakking, M.J.J., Tosa, V., Schütte, B.
The ongoing development of intense high-harmonic generation (HHG) sources has recently enabled highly non-linear ionization of atoms by the absorption of at least 10 extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) photons within a single atom (Senfftleben et al, arXiv:1911.01375). Here we investigate how the generation of these very intense HHG pulses in our 18-m-long beamline is aided by the reshaping of the fundamental, few-cycle, near-infrared (NIR) driving laser within a 30-cm-long HHG Xe medium. Using an incident NIR intensity that is higher than what is required for phase-matched HHG, signatures of reshaping are found by measuring the NIR blueshift and the fluorescence from the HHG medium along the propagation axis. These results are well reproduced by numerical calculations that show temporal compression of the NIR pulses in the HHG medium. The simulations predict that after refocusing an XUV beam waist radius of 320 nm and a clean attosecond pulse train can be obtained in the focal plane, with an estimated XUV peak intensity of 9 × 1015 W cm-2. Our results show that XUV intensities that were previously only available at large-scale facilities can now be obtained using moderately powerful table-top light sources. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd
Characterization of a superconducting Pb photocathode in a superconducting rf photoinjector cavity
2013, Barday, R., Burrill, A., Jankowiak, A., Kamps, T., Knobloch, J., Kugeler, O., Matveenko, A., Neumann, A., Schmeißer, M., Völker, J., Kneisel, P., Nietubyc, R., Schubert, S., Smedley, J., Sekutowicz, J., Will, I.
Photocathodes are a limiting factor for the next generation of ultrahigh brightness photoinjectors. We studied the behavior of a superconducting Pb cathode in the cryogenic environment of a superconducting rf gun cavity to measure the quantum efficiency, its spatial distribution, and the work function. We will also discuss how the cathode surface contaminants modify the performance of the photocathode as well as the gun cavity and we discuss the possibilities to remove these contaminants.
Successful user operation of a superconducting radio-frequency photoelectron gun with Mg cathodes
2021, Teichert, J., Arnold, A., Ciovati, G., Deinert, J.-C., Evtushenko, P., Justus, M., Klopf, J.M., Kneisel, P., Kovalev, S., Kuntzsch, M., Lehnert, U., Lu, P., Ma, S., Murcek, P., Michel, P., Ryzhov, A., Schaber, J., Schneider, C., Schurig, R., Steinbrück, R., Vennekate, H., Will, I., Xiang, R.
At the electron linac for beams with high brilliance and low emittance (ELBE) center for high-power radiation sources, the second version of a superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) photoinjector has been put into operation and has been routinely applied for user operation at the ELBE electron accelerator. SRF guns are suitable for generating a continuous wave electron beam with high average currents and high beam brightness. The SRF gun at ELBE has the goal to generate short electron pulses with bunch charges of 200–300 pC at typical repetition rates of 100 kHz for the production of superradiant, coherent terahertz radiation. The SRF gun includes a 3.5-cell, 1.3-GHz niobium cavity and a superconducting solenoid. A support system with liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling allows the operation of normal-conducting, high quantum efficiency photocathodes. We present the design and performance of the SRF gun as well as beam measurement results of the operation with Mg photocathodes at an acceleration gradient of 8 MV/m (4 MeV kinetic energy). In the last section, we discuss the SRF gun application for production of coherent terahertz radiation at the ELBE facility.
Characterization of self-modulated electron bunches in an argon plasma
2018, Gross, M., Lishilin, O., Loisch, G., Boonpornprasert, P., Chen, Y., Engel, J., Good, J., Huck, H., Isaev, I., Krasilnikov, M., Li, X., Niemczyk, R., Oppelt, A., Qian, H., Renier, Y., Stephan, F., Zhao, Q., Brinkmann, R., Martinez de la Ossa, A., Osterhoff, J., Grüner, F.J., Mehrling, T., Schroeder, C.B., Will, I.
The self-modulation instability is fundamental for the plasma wakefield acceleration experiment of the AWAKE (Advanced Wakefield Experiment) collaboration at CERN where this effect is used to generate proton bunches for the resonant excitation of high acceleration fields. Utilizing the availability of flexible electron beam shaping together with excellent diagnostics including an RF deflector, a supporting experiment was set up at the electron accelerator PITZ (Photo Injector Test facility at DESY, Zeuthen site), given that the underlying physics is the same. After demonstrating the effect [1] the next goal is to investigate in detail the self-modulation of long (with respect to the plasma wavelength) electron beams. In this contribution we describe parameter studies on self-modulation of a long electron bunch in an argon plasma. The plasma was generated with a discharge cell with densities in the 1013 cm-3 to 1015 cm-3 range. The plasma density was deduced from the plasma wavelength as indicated by the self-modulation period. Parameter scans were conducted with variable plasma density and electron bunch focusing.
Experimentally minimized beam emittance from an L-band photoinjector
2012, Krasilnikov, M., Stephan, F., Asova, G., Grabosch, H.-J., Groß, M., Hakobyan, L., Isaev, I., Ivanisenko, Y., Jachmann, L., Khojoyan, M., Klemz, G., Köhler, W., Mahgoub, M., Malyutin, D., Nozdrin, M., Oppelt, A., Otevrel, M., Petrosyan, B., Rimjaem, S., Shapovalov, A., Vashchenko, G., Weidinger, S., Wenndorff, R., Flöttmann, K., Hoffmann, M., Lederer, S., Schlarb, H., Schreiber, S., Templin, I., Will, I., Paramonov, V., Richter, D.
High brightness electron sources for linac based free-electron lasers (FELs) are being developed at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY, Zeuthen site (PITZ). Production of electron bunches with extremely small transverse emittance is the focus of the PITZ scientific program. The photoinjector optimization in 2008-2009 for a bunch charge of 1, 0.5, 0.25, and 0.1nC resulted in measured emittance values which are beyond the requirements of the European XFEL. Several essential modifications were commissioned in 2010-2011 at PITZ, resulting in further improvement of the photoinjector performance. Significant improvement of the rf gun phase stability is a major contribution in the reduction of the measured transverse emittance. The old TESLA prototype booster was replaced by a new cut disk structure cavity. This allows acceleration of the electron beam to higher energies and supports much higher flexibility for stable booster operation as well as for longer rf pulses which is of vital importance especially for the emittance optimization of low charge bunches. The transverse phase space of the electron beam was optimized at PITZ for bunch charges in the range between 0.02 and 2nC, where the quality of the beam measurements was preserved by utilizing long pulse train operation. The experimental optimization yielded worldwide unprecedented low normalized emittance beams in the whole charge range studied.
Attosecond investigation of extreme-ultraviolet multi-photon multi-electron ionization
2022, Kretschmar, M., Hadjipittas, A., Major, B., Tümmler, J., Will, I., Nagy, T., Vrakking, M. J. J., Emmanouilidou, A., Schütte, B.
Multi-electron dynamics in atoms and molecules very often occur on sub- to few-femtosecond time scales. The available intensities of extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) attosecond pulses have previously allowed the time-resolved investigation of two-photon, two-electron interactions. Here we study double and triple ionization of argon atoms involving the absorption of up to five XUV photons using a pair of intense attosecond pulse trains (APTs). By varying the time delay between the two APTs with attosecond precision and the spatial overlap with nanometer precision, we obtain information on complex nonlinear multi-photon ionization pathways. Our experimental and numerical results show that Ar2+ is predominantly formed by a sequential two-photon process, whereas the delay dependence of the Ar3+ ion yield exhibits clear signatures of the involvement of a simultaneous two-photon absorption process. Our experiment suggests that it is possible to investigate multi-electron dynamics using attosecond pulses for both pumping and probing the dynamics.
Highly non-linear ionization of atoms induced by intense high-harmonic pulses
2020, Senfftleben, B., Kretschmar, M., Hoffmann, A., Sauppe, M., Tümmler, J., Will, I., Nagy, T., Vrakking, M.J.J., Rupp, D., Schütte, B.
Intense extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulses enable the investigation of XUV-induced non-linear processes and are a prerequisite for the development of attosecond pump - attosecond probe experiments. While highly non-linear processes in the XUV range have been studied at free-electron lasers (FELs), high-harmonic generation (HHG) has allowed the investigation of low-order non-linear processes. Here we suggest a concept to optimize the HHG intensity, which surprisingly requires a scaling of the experimental parameters that differs substantially from optimizing the HHG pulse energy. As a result, we are able to study highly non-linear processes in the XUV range using a driving laser with a modest (˜ 10 mJ) pulse energy. We demonstrate our approach by ionizing Ar atoms up to Ar5 + , requiring the absorption of at least 10 XUV photons. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd
Detailed characterization of electron sources yielding first demonstration of European x-ray free-electron laser beam quality
2010, Stephan, F., Boulware, C.H., Krasilnikov, M., Bähr, J., Asova, G., Donat, A., Gensch, U., Grabosch, H.J., Hänel, M., Hakobyan, L., Henschel, H., Ivanisenko, Y., Jachmann, L., Khodyachykh, S., Khojoyan, M., Kohler, W., Korepanov, S., Koss, G., Kretzschmann, A., Leich, H., Ludecke, H., Meissner, A., Oppelt, A., Petrosyan, B., Pohl, M., Riemann, S., Rimjaem, S., Sachwitz, M., Schoneich, B., Scholz, T., Schulze, H., Schultze, J., Schwendicke, U., Shapovalov, A., Spesyvtsev, R., Staykov, L., Tonisch, F., Walter, T., Weisse, S., Wenndorff, R., Winde, M., Vu, L.V., Durr, H., Kamps, T., Richter, D., Sperling, M., Ovsyannikov, R., Vollmer, A., Knobloch, J., Jaeschke, E., Boster, J., Brinkmann, R., Choroba, S., Flechsenhar, K., Flottmann, K., Gerdau, W., Katalev, V., Koprek, W., Lederer, S., Martens, C., Pucyk, P., Schreiber, S., Simrock, S., Vogel, E., Vogel, V., Rosbach, K., Bonev, I., Tsakov, I., Michelato, P., Monaco, L., Pagani, C., Sertore, D., Garvey, T., Will, I., Templin, I., Sandner, W., Ackermann, W., Arévalo, E., Gjonaj, E., Muller, W.F.O., Schnepp, S., Weiland, T., Wolfheimer, F., Ronsch, J., Rossbach, J.
The photoinjector test facility at DESY, Zeuthen site (PITZ), was built to develop and optimize photoelectron sources for superconducting linacs for high-brilliance, short-wavelength free-electron laser (FEL) applications like the free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH) and the European x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL). In this paper, the detailed characterization of two laser-driven rf guns with different operating conditions is described. One experimental optimization of the beam parameters was performed at an accelerating gradient of about 43 MV/m at the photocathode and the other at about 60 MV/m. In both cases, electron beams with very high phase-space density have been demonstrated at a bunch charge of 1 nC and are compared with corresponding simulations. The rf gun optimized for the lower gradient has surpassed all the FLASH requirements on beam quality and rf parameters (gradient, rf pulse length, repetition rate) and serves as a spare gun for this facility. The rf gun studied with increased accelerating gradient at the cathode produced beams with even higher brightness, yielding the first demonstration of the beam quality required for driving the European XFEL: The geometric mean of the normalized projected rms emittance in the two transverse directions was measured to be 1.260±13 mmmrad for a 1-nC electron bunch. When a 10% charge cut is applied excluding electrons from those phase-space regions where the measured phase-space density is below a certain level and which are not expected to contribute to the lasing process, the normalized projected rms emittance is about 0.9 mmmrad. © 2010 The American Physical Society.
Photocathode laser based bunch shaping for high transformer ratio plasma wakefield acceleration
2018, Loisch, G., Good, J., Gross, M., Huck, H., Isaev, I., Krasilnikov, M., Lishilin, O., Oppelt, A., Renier, Y., Stephan, F., Brinkmann, R., Grüner, F., Will, I.
Beam driven plasma acceleration is one of the most promising candidates for future compact particle accelerator technologies. In this scheme a particle bunch drives a wake in a plasma medium. The fields inside of the wake can be used to accelerate a trailing witness bunch. To maximise the ratio between acceleration of the witness to deceleration of the drive bunch, the so called transformer ratio, several methods have been proposed. The ones yielding the most favorable results are based on shaped drive bunches that are long in terms of the plasma wavelength. We present here methods to create such drive bunches employing temporally shaped UV-laser pulses for the extraction of electron bunches from a photo-electron gun. Theoretical considerations, experimental results and possibilities for further improvements are discussed.