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Physical review accelerators and beams 25(5), 053401 (2022). doi:10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.25.053401, The next generation of accelerator based scientific facilities, such as the megahertz repetition rate free electron laser and electron-ion collider, relies on photoelectron sources of high peak and high average brightness. Therefore, photocathodes with both low transverse momentum spread (TMS) and high quantum efficiency (QE) are required. The conventional positive correlation between QE and TMS leads to a tradeoff between peak and average brightness. In this study, a negative correlation between QE and TMS is experimentally observed for the first time on a semiconductor photocathode (Cs2Te). Two models are proposed to explain such an anomalous correlation. One model considers the junction between the semiconductor cathode and the metal substrate in the case of slightly excessive cesium deposition, and the other model considers different Cs-Te composites. Our studies inspire a new way to break the conventional correlation between QE and TMS, and open a new perspective to advance the beam brightness frontiers., Published by American Physical Society, College Park, MD

Physical review accelerators and beams 25(10), 103401 (2022). doi:10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.25.103401, Photoinjectors are the main high brightness electron sources for x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs). Photoinjector emittance reduction is one of the key knobs for improving XFEL lasing, so precise emittance measurement is critical. It is well known that rms emittance is very sensitive to low intensity tails of particle distributions in the phase space, whose measurement depends on the signal to noise ratio and image processing procedures. Such sensitivities make the interpretations of beam transverse brightness challenging, leading to different emittance definitions to reduce the impact of tail particles. In this paper, transverse phase space is analyzed in action and phase coordinates for both analytical models and experiments, which gives a more intuitive way to calculate the beam core brightness., Published by American Physical Society, College Park, MD

Physical review accelerators and beams 25(8), 083401 (2022). doi:10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.25.083401, Slice energy spread is one of the key parameters in free electron laser optimizations, but its accurate measurement is not straightforward. Two recent studies from high energy (≥100 MeV) photoinjectors at SwissFEL and European XFEL have reported much higher slice energy spread than expected at their XFEL working points (200 - 250 pC). In this paper, a new method formeasuring slice energy spread at a lower beam energy (∼20 MeV) is proposed and demonstrated at the PhotoInjector Test facility at DESY Zeuthen (PITZ), and the results for 250 pC are much lower than those measured at high energy injectors, Published by American Physical Society, College Park, MD

Applied physics letters 120, 104102 (2022). doi:10.1063/5.0078927, Electron photoinjectors provide high-brightness electron beams to numerous research applications in physics, chemistry, material, and life sciences. Semiconductor photocathodes are widely used here, as they enable the production of low-emittance beams with variable charge at high repetition rates. One of the key figures of merit of photocathodes is the minimum achievable bunch length. In semiconductor cathodes, this is dominated by scattering effects and varying penetration depths of the extracting photons, which leads to a characteristic electron emission function. We present a method to determine this cathode time response with resolution on the tens of femtoseconds level, breaking the resolution barrier encountered in previous studies. The method is demonstrated with cesium-telluride (Cs$_2$Te) and gold cathodes, revealing response times of (184 �� 41) fs up to (253 �� 58) fs for the semiconductor and an upper limit of (93 �� 17) fs for the metal. Monte Carlo simulations of Cs$_2$Te emission benchmarked to these results give detailed information about the cathode material., Published by American Inst. of Physics, Melville, NY

Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research / A 1004, 165344 (1-9) (2021). doi:10.1016/j.nima.2021.165344, Multiphysics simulations are widely used in designing high average power RF cavities, which require iterations of RF simulation, thermal simulation and mechanical simulation in a closed loop. The reliability and accuracy of the multiphysics simulations are crucial, otherwise extra design margins are needed for simulation uncertainties. We present an experimental benchmark for the multiphysics simulations of a 40 kW L-band RF gun at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY in Zeuthen (PITZ). The gun temperature distribution and frequency shift due to average RF heating power are measured and compared with multiphysics simulations., Published by North-Holland Publ. Co., Amsterdam

High energy density physics 32, 31 - 43 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.hedp.2019.04.001, To understand astrophysical magnetic-field amplification, we conducted a feasibility study for a laboratory experiment of a non-resonant streaming instability at the Photo Injector Test Facility at DESY, Zeuthen site (PITZ). This non-resonant streaming instability, also known as Bell’s instability, is generally regarded as a candidate for the amplification of interstellar magnetic field in the upstream region of supernova-remnant shocks, which is crucial for the efficiency of diffusive shock acceleration. In the beam-plasma system composed of a radio-frequency electron gun and a gas-discharge plasma cell, the goal of our experiment is to demonstrate the development of the non-resonant streaming instability and to find its saturation level in the laboratory environment. Since we find that the electron beam will be significantly decelerated on account of an electrostatic streaming instability, which will decrease the growth rate of desired non-resonant streaming instability, we discuss possible ways to suppress the electrostatic streaming instability by considering the characteristics of a field-emission-based quasi continuous-wave electron beam., Published by Elsevier, Amsterdam [u.a.]

Physical review letters 122(4), 044801 (2019). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.044801, Temporally modulated electron beams have a wide array of applications ranging from the generation of coherently enhanced electromagnetic radiation to the resonant excitation of electromagnetic wakefields in advanced-accelerator concepts. Likewise producing low-energy ultrashort microbunches could be useful for ultrafast electron diffraction and new accelerator-based light-source concepts. In this Letter we propose and experimentally demonstrate a passive microbunching technique capable of forming a picosecond bunch train at ∼6 MeV. The method relies on the excitation of electromagnetic wakefields as the beam propagates through a dielectric-lined waveguide. Owing to the nonultrarelativistic nature of the beam, the induced energy modulation eventually converts into a density modulation as the beam travels in a following free-space drift. The modulated beam is further accelerated to ∼20 MeV while preserving the imparted density modulation., Published by APS, College Park, Md.

10th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC’19, Melbourne, Australia, 2 May 2019 - 24 May 2019; Journal of physics / Conference series Conference series [...] 1350, 012046 - (2019). doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1350/1/012046, 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 by IOP Publ.20382, Bristol

We report on an approach to produce quasi continuous-wave (cw) electron beams with an average beam current of milliamperes and a mean beam energy of a few MeV in a pulsed RF injector. Potential applications are in the planned laboratory astrophysics programs at DESY. The beam generation is based on field emission from a specially designed metallic field emitter. A quasi cw beam profile is formed over subsequent RF cycles at the resonance frequency of the gun cavity. This is realized by debunching in a cut disk structure accelerating cavity (booster) downstream of the gun. The peak and average beam currents can be tuned in beam dynamics simulations by adjusting operation conditions of the booster cavity. Optimization of the transverse beam size at specific positions (e.g., entrance of the plasma experiment) is performed by applying magnetic focusing fields provided by solenoids along the beam line. In this paper, the design of a microtip field emitter is introduced and characterized in electromagnetic field simulations in the gun cavity. A series of particle tracking simulations are conducted for multi-parametric optimization of the parameters of the produced quasi cw electron beams. The obtained results will be presented and discussed. In addition, measurements of the parasitic field emission (PFE) current (dark current) in the PITZ gun will be exemplarily shown to distinguish its order of magnitude from the produced beam current by the designed field emitter., Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures

3rd European Advanced Accelerator Concepts workshop, EAAC 2017, Elba, Italy, 24 Sep 2017 - 30 Sep 2017; Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research / A 909, 107 - 110 (2018). doi:10.1016/j.nima.2018.02.043, 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., Published by North-Holland Publ. Co., Amsterdam

9th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC18, Vancouver, Kanada, 29 Apr 2018 - 4 May 2018; Journal of physics / Conference Series 1067, 042012 (2018). doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1067/4/042012, 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 10$^{13}$ cm$^{−3}$ to 10$^{15}$ 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., Published by IOP Publ., Bristol

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.

Published online 16 November 2005 Groupe SERA; Many scientific disciplines ranging from physics, chemistry and biology to material sciences, geophysics and medical diagnostics need a powerful X-ray source with pulse lengths in the femtosecond range [1-4]. This would allow, for example, time-resolved observation of chemical reactions with atomic resolution. Such radiation of extreme intensity, and tunable over a wide range of wavelengths, can be accomplished using high-gain free-electron lasers (FEL) [5-10]. Here we present results of the first successful operation of an FEL at a wavelength of 32 nm, with ultra-short pulses (25 fs FWHM), a peak power at the Gigawatt level, and a high degree of transverse and longitudinal coherence. The experimental data are in full agreement with theory. This is the shortest wavelength achieved with an FEL to date and an important milestone towards a user facility designed for wavelengths down to 6 nm. With a peak brilliance exceeding the state-of-the-art of synchrotron radiation sources [4] by seven orders of magnitude, this device opens a new field of experiments, and it paves the way towards sources with even shorter wavelengths, such as the Linac Coherent Light Source [3] at Stanford, USA, and the European X-ray Free Electron Laser Facility [4] in Hamburg, Germany.