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Many of the most significant advances in accelerator science have been due to improvements in our ability to manipulate beam phase space. Despite steady progress in beam phase-space manipulation over the last several decades, future accelerator applications continue to outpace the ability to manipulate the phase space. This situation is especially pronounced for longitudinal beam phase-space manipulation, and is now getting increased attention. Herein, we report the first experimental demonstration of the double emittance exchange concept, which allows for the control of the longitudinal phase space using relatively simple transverse manipulation techniques. The double emittance exchange beamline enables extensive longitudinal manipulation, including tunable bunch compression, time-energy correlation control, and nonlinearity correction, in a remarkably flexible manner. The demonstration of this new method opens the door for arbitrary longitudinal beam manipulations capable of responding to the ever increasing demands of future accelerator applications.

We demonstrate, theoretically and experimentally, that a traveling electric charge passing from one photonic crystal into another generates edge waves-electromagnetic modes with frequencies inside the common photonic band gap localized at the interface-via a process of transition edge-wave radiation (TER). A simple and intuitive expression for the TER spectral density is derived and then applied to a specific structure: two interfacing photonic topological insulators with opposite spin-Chern indices. We show that TER breaks the time-reversal symmetry and enables valley- and spin-polarized generation of topologically protected edge waves propagating in one or both directions along the interface. Experimental measurements at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility are consistent with the excitation and localization of the edge waves. The concept of TER paves the way for novel particle accelerators and detectors.

We present the first demonstration of high-power, reversed-Cherenkov wakefield radiation by electron bunches passing through a metamaterial structure. The structure supports a fundamental transverse magnetic mode with a negative group velocity leading to reversed-Cherenkov radiation, which was clearly verified in the experiments. Single 45 nC electron bunches of 65 MeV traversing the structure generated up to 25 MW in 2 ns pulses at 11.4 GHz, in excellent agreement with theory. Two bunches of 85 nC with appropriate temporal spacing generated up to 80 MW by coherent wakefield superposition, the highest rf power that metamaterial structures ever experienced without damage. These results demonstrate the unique features of metamaterial structures that are very attractive for future high-gradient wakefield accelerators, including two-beam and collinear accelerators. Advantages include the high shunt impedance for high-power generation and high-gradient acceleration, the simple and rugged structure, and a large parameter space for optimization.

Undesirable electron field emission (also known as dark current) in high gradient rf photocathode guns deteriorates the quality of the photoemission current and limits the operational gradient. To improve the understanding of dark current emission, a high-resolution (∼100  μm) dark current imaging experiment has been performed in an L-band photocathode gun operating at ∼100  MV/m of surface gradient. Scattered strong emission areas with high current have been observed on the cathode. The field enhancement factor β of selected regions on the cathode has been measured. The postexaminations with scanning electron microscopy and white light interferometry reveal the origins of ∼75% strong emission areas overlap with the spots where rf breakdown has occurred.

We report experimental observation of higher order mode (HOM) wakefield suppression in a room-temperature traveling-wave photonic-band-gap (PBG) accelerating structure at 11.700 GHz. It has been long recognized that PBG structures have the potential for reducing long-range wakefields in accelerators. The first ever demonstration of acceleration in a room-temperature PBG structure was conducted in 2005. Since then, the importance of PBG accelerator research has been recognized by many institutions. However, the full experimental characterization of the wakefield spectrum and demonstration of wakefield suppression when the accelerating structure is excited by an electron beam has not been performed to date. We conducted an experiment at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator test facility and observed wakefields excited by a single high charge electron bunch when it passes through a PBG accelerator structure. Excellent HOM suppression properties of the PBG accelerator were demonstrated in the beam test.

Field emission from a solid metal surface has been continuously studied for a century over macroscopic to atomic scales. It is general knowledge that, other than the surface properties, the emitted current is governed solely by the applied electric field. A pin cathode has been used to study the dependence of field emission on stored energy in an L-band rf gun. The stored energy was changed by adjusting the axial position (distance between the cathode base and the gun back surface) of the cathode while the applied electric field on the cathode tip is kept constant. A very strong correlation of the field-emission current with the stored energy has been observed. While eliminating all possible interfering sources, an enhancement of the current by a factor of 5 was obtained as the stored energy was increased by a factor of 3. It implies that under certain circumstances a localized field emission may be significantly altered by the global parameters in a system.

We present a clear signature of the Schottky effect in a rf photoinjector using photons with energy lower than the Mg cathode work function. This signature is manifested by the shift in the rf phase angle for the onset of the detection of photoelectrons via single-photon absorption and allows for a reasonable estimate of the field enhancement factor. This is a viable method to generate an electron beam with very low thermal emittance and thus, a high brightness beam.