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The linear accelerator FLUTE (Far Infrared Linac and Test Experiment) at KIT serves as a test facility for accelerator research and for the generation of ultra-intense coherent THz radiation. To achieve stable THz photon energy and optimal beam trajectory, the energy of the electrons emitted from the RF photo-injector must be stable. The accelerating voltage of the RF cavity has been shown to be a significant influencing factor. Here, we report on the development of a slow closed-loop feedback system to stabilize the RF power and thus the accelerating voltage in the RF photo-injector cavity. With this closed-loop feedback system the relative standard deviation of the RF power in the cavity can be improved by 8.5 %., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

For the development of future synchrotron light sources new operation modes often have to be considered. One such mode is the operation with a negative momentum compaction factor to provide the possibility of increased dynamic aperture. For successful application in future light sources, the influence of this mode has to be investigated. At the KIT storage ring KARA (Karlsruhe Research Accelerator), operation with negative momentum compaction has been implemented and the dynamics can now be investigated. Using a variety of high-performance beam diagnostics devices it is possible to observe the beam dynamics under negative momentum compaction conditions. This contribution presents different aspects of the results of these investigations in the longitudinal and transversal plane., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test-Experiment) is a compact versatile linac-based accelerator test facility at KIT. Its main goal is to serve as a platform for a variety of accelerator studies and to generate strong ultra-short THz pulses for photon science. It will also serve as an injector for a Very Large Acceptance compact Storage Ring (VLA-cSR), which will be realized at KIT in the framework of the compact STorage Ring for Accelerator Research and Technology (cSTART) project. To achieve acceleration of electrons in the RF photoinjector and LINAC (from FLUTE) with high stability, it is necessary to provide stable RF power. For this goal, an upgrade of the existing RF system design has been proposed and is currently being implemented. This contribution will report on the updated RF system design and the commissioning status of the new RF system components., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

The compact STorage ring for Accelerator Research and Technology cSTART project will deliver a new KIT accelerator test facility for the application of novel acceleration techniques and diagnostics. The goal is to demonstrate storing an electron beam of a Laser Plasma Accelerator (LPA) in a compact circular accelerator for the first time. Before installing an LPA, the Far-Infrared Linac and Test Experiment (FLUTE) will serve as a full energy injector for the compact storage ring, providing stable bunches with a length down to a few femtoseconds. The transport of the bunches from FLUTE to the cSTART storage ring requires a transfer line which includes horizontal, vertical and coupled deflections which leads to coupling of the dynamics in the two transverse planes. In order to realize ultra-short bunch lengths at the end of the transport line, it relies on special optics which invokes high and negative dispersion. This contribution presents dynamic aperture studies based on six-dimensional tracking through the lattice of the transfer line., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

The compact and versatile linear accelerator-based test facility FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test-Experiment) is operated at KIT. Its primary goal is to serve as a platform for a variety of accelerator R\ studies like the generation of strong ultra-short terahertz pulses. The amplitude of the generated coherent THz pulses is proportional to the square number of particles in the bunch. With the transverse emittance a measure for the transverse particle density can be determined. It is therefore a vital parameter in the optimization for operation. In a systematic study, the transverse emittance of the electron beam was measured in the FLUTE injector. A detailed analysis considers different influences such as the bunch charge and compares this with particle tracking simulations carried out with ASTRA. In this contribution, the key findings of this analysis are discussed., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

In the booster synchrotron of the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA), the beam is injected from the microtron at 53 MeV and ramped up to 500 MeV. Though the injected beam current from the microtron to the booster seems good, the injection efficiency into the booster is currently low due to various effects. Consequently, an upgrade of the whole beam diagnostics system is taking place in the booster, in order to improve the injection efficiency through understanding the loss mechanisms and the behavior of bunches. Among these diagnostics tools are beam loss monitors, a transverse profile monitor and a longitudinal profile monitor. In this paper, we will describe the setups used for bunch profile measurements in both transverse and longitudinal planes and report on first data analysis results., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

RF phase modulation at twice the synchrotron frequency can be used to split a stored electron bunch into two or more bunchlets orbiting each other. We report on time-resolved measurements at the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA), where this bunch splitting was used to increase the threshold current of the microbunching instability, happening in the short-bunch operation mode. Turning the modulation on and off reproducibly affects the sawtooth behavior of the emitted coherent synchrotron radiation., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

Electro-optical (EO) methods are nowadays well-proven diagnostic tools, which are utilized to detect THz fields in countless experiments. The world’s first near-field EO sampling monitor at an electron storage ring was developed and installed at the KIT storage ring KARA (Karlsruhe Research Accelerator) and optimized to detect longitudinal bunch profiles. This experiment with other diagnostic techniques builds a distributed, synchronized sensor network to gain comprehensive data about the phase-space of electron bunches as well as the produced coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR). These measurements facilitate studies of physical conditions to provide, at the end, intense and stable CSR in the THz range. At KIT, we also operate FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- und Test-Experiment), a new compact versatile linear accelerator as a test facility for novel techniques and diagnostics. There, EO diagnostics will be implemented to open up possibilities to evaluate and compare new techniques for longitudinal bunch diagnostics. In this contribution, we will give an overview of results achieved, the current status of the EO diagnostic setups at KARA and FLUTE and discuss future prospects., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- und Test-Experiment) is a compact linac-based test facility for accelerator R and source of intense THz radiation for photon science. In preparation for the next experiments, the electron beam of the injector section of FLUTE has been characterized. In systematic studies the electron beam parameters, e.g., beam energy and emittance, are measured with several diagnostic systems. This knowledge allows the establishment of different operation settings and the optimization of electron beam parameters for future experiments., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

New operation modes are often considered during the development of new synchrotron light sources. An understanding of the effects involved is inevitable for a successful operation of these schemes. At the KIT storage ring KARA (Karlsruhe Research Accelerator), new modes can be implemented and tested at various energies, employing a variety of performant beam diagnostics devices. Negative momentum compaction optics at various energies have been established. Also, the influence of a negative momentum compaction factor on different effects has been investigated. This contribution comprises a short report on the status of the implementation of a negative momentum compaction optics at KARA. Additionally, first measurements of the changes to the current-dependent bunch length will be presented., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

In electron storage rings, it is possible to increase the electron bunch length by applying a phase modulation on the radio frequency accelerating field by choosing appropriate parameters for the modulation. Such a bunch lengthening effect improves beam parameters such as the beam lifetime, which can help us to get better beam stability. The dependence of the bunch lengthening on the modulation frequency, the so-called detuning property, tends to have a peak with asymmetric slopes around it. The modulation amplitude and the beam current also affect the properties of the detuning condition of such bunch lengthening. We have investigated the detuning property with systematic measurements at the electron storage ring KARA. The experimental results agree with the theoretical model and the simulation results.

For future synchrotron light sources different operation modes are of interest. Therefore various modes are currently being tested at the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA) including optics for a negative momentum compaction factor. These optics have been calculated and are under commissioning at KARA. Additionally, studies about expected collective effects in this regime are being performed, including the head-tail and microbunching instabilities. In this contribution we will present the status of operation in the negative momentum compaction regime and discuss expected collective effects that will be studied in this context., CERN Yellow Reports: Conference Proceedings, Vol. 9 (2020): Proceedings of the ICFA mini-Workshop on Mitigation of Coherent Beam Instabilities in Particle Accelerators, Zermatt, Switzerland, 23–27 September 2019

Scientific reports 13(1), 4618 (2023). doi:10.1038/s41598-023-31196-5, The description of physical processes with many-particle systems is a key approach to the modeling of numerous physical systems. For example in storage rings, where ultrarelativistic particles are agglomerated in dense bunches, the modeling and measurement of their phase-space distribution is of paramount importance: at any time the phase-space distribution not only determines the complete space-time evolution but also provides fundamental performance characteristics for storage ring operation. Here, we demonstrate a non-destructive tomographic imaging technique for the 2D longitudinal phase-space distribution of ultrarelativistic electron bunches. For this purpose, we utilize a unique setup, which streams turn-by-turn near-field measurements of bunch profiles at MHz repetition rates. To demonstrate the feasibility of our method, we induce a non-equilibrium state and show that the phase-space distribution microstructuring as well as the phase-space distribution dynamics can be observed in great detail. Our approach offers a pathway to control ultrashort bunches and supports, as one example, the development of compact accelerators with low energy footprints., Published by Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, [London]

Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is a versatile tool for various accelerator diagnostics aspects. Amongst others it allows a precise determination of the filling pattern. At the visible light diagnostics port at the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA), the KIT storage ring, a Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) in combination with a histogramming device (PicoHarp) is used. To compensate for possible dead-time effects, a correction scheme was developed and tested successfully. The compensation increases the dynamic range in which accurate measurements are possible and avoids distortion of the measured filling pattern. This contribution presents the experimental setup, as well as a series of benchmark measurements., Proceedings of the 9th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

While recent diffraction-limited storage rings provide bunches with transverse dimensions smaller than the wavelength of the observed synchrotron radiation, the bunch compression in the longitudinal plane is still challenging. The benefit would be single cycle pulses of coherent radiation with many orders of magnitude higher intensity. However, the self-interaction of a short electron bunch with its emitted coherent radiation can lead to micro-bunching instabilities. This effect limits the bunch compression in storage rings currently to the picosecond range. In that range, the bunches emit coherent THz radiation corresponding to their bunch length. In this paper, new measurement setups developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology are described for systematic turn-by-turn investigations of the micro-bunching instability. They lead to a better understanding thereof and enable appropriate observation methods in future efforts of controlling and mastering the instability. Furthermore, the described setups might also be used as high repetition rate bunch compression monitors for bunches of picosecond length and below., Proceedings of the 60th ICFA Advanced Beam Dynamics Workshop on Future Light Sources, FLS2018, Shanghai, China

The storage ring Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA) at KIT operate in a wide energy range from 0.5 to 2.5 GeV. Different non-linear effects, in particular, residual octupole components of the magnetic field of the CATACT wiggler at high field level (2.5 T), proximity of the working point to a vertical sextupole resonance Qy=8/3 and weak coupling octupole resonance 2Qx+2Qy=19, high chromaticity, etc. decrease the beam life time. This is because of the reduced dynamic aperture and momentum acceptance for off-momentum particles. A new operation point at high vertical tune Qy=2.81 was tested. For this, injection and ramping tables have been modified. First the values were optimized by simulations, then during beam tests, to minimize betatron tune shaking during beam-energy ramps. It stabilized high-current beams by the fast-feedback system the whole process: injection at 0.5 GeV, ramping, and operation at 1.3 GeV cycles. It essentially improved life time and beam current. In addition, new low-alpha tables have been created and tested, resulting in the reduction of the momentum compaction factor to 10⁻⁴. Short bunch operation at 0.5GeV injection energy was also tested successfully., Proceedings of the 9th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

High repetition rate diagnostics are required when detecting single-shot electro-optical (EO) bunch profiles. The KIT storage ring KARA (KArlsruhe Research Accelerator) is the first storage ring in the world that has a near-field EO bunch-profile monitor in operation. By imprinting longitudinal electron bunch profiles onto chirped laser pulses, single-shot detection is feasible. However, limitations of available detection systems are challenging: The constraints are either given by the repetition rate or the duration of the consecutive acquisitions. Two strategies can overcome these limitations: Based on the photonic time-stretch method, the ps laser pulses can be stretched to the ns range using km long fibers. The readout with a high-bandwidth oscilloscope then enables a single-shot detection at high repetition rates. The other strategy is the development of dedicated ultra-fast photodetector arrays allowing direct detection of the ps pulses at MHz repetition rates. We developed KALYPSO, a linear detector array with a DAQ allowing to record high data-rates over long time scales. Here, we present recent results of studies of the longitudinal electron bunch dynamics using KALYPSO., Proceedings of the 9th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Design of a very large acceptance compact storage ring is underway at the Institute for Beam Physics and Technology of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany). Combination of a compact storage ring and a laser wake-field accelerator (LWFA) might be the basis for future compact light sources and advancing user facilities. Meanwhile the post-LWFA beam is not fitted for storage and accumulation in conventional storage rings. New generation rings with adapted features are required. Different geometries and lattices of a ring operating between 50 to 500 MeV energy range were investigated. The model suitable to store the post-LWFA beam with a wide momentum spread (1% to 2%) and ultra-short electron bunches of fs range was chosen as basis for further detailed studies. The DBA-FDF lattice with relaxed settings, split elements and high order optics of tolerable strength allows improving the dynamic aperture up to 20 mm. The momentum acceptance of the compact lattice exceeds 8% while dispersion is limited. The physical program includes turn-by-turn phase compression of a beam, crab cavities, dedicated alpha optics mode of operation, non-linear insertion devices etc., Proceedings of the 9th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test-Experiment) will be a new compact versatile linear accelerator at KIT. Its primary goal is to serve as a platform for a variety of accelerator studies as well as to generate strong ultra-short THz pulses for photon science. The machine consists of an RF gun, a traveling wave linac and a D-shaped bunch compressor chicane with corresponding diagnostics sections. In this contribution, we report on the latest developments of the diagnostics components. An overview of the readout and control system integration will be given., Proceedings of the 9th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

The Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL) is the project for a superconducting, high current H-accelerator at CERN. To find dangerous higher order modes (HOMs) in the SPL superconducting cavities, simulation and analysis for the cavity model using simulation tools are necessary. The. existing TESLA 9-cell cavity geometry data have been used for the initial construction of the models in HFSS. Monopole, dipole and quadrupole modes have been obtained by applying different symmetry boundaries on various cavity models. In calculation, scripting language in HFSS was used to create scripts to automatically calculate the parameters of modes in these cavity models (these scripts are also available in other cavities with different cell numbers and geometric structures). The results calculated automatically are then compared with the values given in the TESLA paper. The optimized cavity model with the minimum error will be taken as the base for further simulation of the SPL cavities.