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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 0.1 nC resulted in measured emittance values which are beyond the requirements of the European XFEL [S. Rimjaem et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 671, 62 (2012)NIMAER0168-900210.1016/j.nima.2011.12.101]. 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 2 nC, 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.

High brightness electron sources for linac based short-wavelength free-electron lasers are developed and optimized for small transverse projected emittance at the photo-injector test facility at DESY, location Zeuthen (PITZ). A major part of the measurement program at PITZ is dedicated to transverse phase space optimization in order to fulfill the requirements of the European X-ray free-electron laser (European XFEL). A laser-driven RF-gun, treated with a dry-ice sublimation-impulse cleaning technique, a new photocathode laser system allowing short rise and fall times of the flat-top temporal distribution as well as several new diagnostic components have been installed at PITZ in 2008. The electrons generated via the photo-effect at a cesium telluride (Cs2Te) cathode are accelerated by a 1.6 cell L-band RF-gun cavity with a maximum accelerating gradient at the cathode of about 60 MV/m. The transverse projected emittance is measured using a single slit scan technique. In the 2008–2009 run period, a detailed characterization of the projected transverse emittance was performed at different operating conditions. Optimizations and measurement results as well as simulation predictions of the transverse projected emittance for bunch charges of 1, 0.5, 0.25 and 0.1 nC are presented and discussed in this paper. The geometric mean of the normalized projected rms emittance in both transverse directions for an electron bunch charge of 1 nC was measured to be

Recent work has shown the possibility of generating self-shaped ellipsoidal beams with properties commensurate with the requirements of future light sources such as free-electron lasers and inverse Compton sources. In this so-termed ``blowout'' regime, short laser bunches are transformed via photoemission into short electron bunches which then self-consistently evolve into nearly uniform-density ellipsoids under space-charge forces. We report here on the first blowout studies conducted in collaboration between the UCLA Particle Beam Physics Lab and the Photo Injector Test Facility, Zeuthen (PITZ). The measurements conducted at the PITZ photoinjector facility examine the evolution of 750 pC, 2.7 ps FWHM electron bunches born in an L-band photoinjector and subsequently accelerated through a nine-cell L-band booster for a resulting energy of 12 MeV. These measurements represent the first observations of self-shaped ellipsoid evolution under postinjector acceleration, a key step in demonstrating the utility of such self-shaped beams at higher energy, where the advantages in both transverse and longitudinal and transverse phase space may be exploited in creating very high brightness beams.

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 1.26±0.13 mm mrad 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 mm mrad.

Longitudinal diagnostics of the electron bunch shapes play a crucial role in the operation of linac-based light sources. Electro-optical techniques allow us to measure the longitudinal electron bunch profiles non-destructively on a shot-by-shot basis. Here we present results from measurements of electron bunches with a length of 200-900 fs rms at the Swiss FEL Injector Test Facility. All the measurements were done using an Yb-doped fibre laser system (with a central wavelength of a 1050 nm) and a GaP crystal. The technique of electro-optical spectral decoding (EOSD) was applied and showed great capabilities to measure bunch shapes down to around 370 fs rms. Measurements were performed for different electron energies to study the expected distortions of the measured bunch profile due to the energy-dependent widening of the electric field, which plays a role for low beam energies below and around 40 MeV. The studies provide valuable input for the design of the EOSD monitors for the compact linear accelerator FLUTE that is currently under commissioning at the Karslruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).