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An electron linear accelerator test facility located on UCLA’s southwest campus in Westwood, SAMURAI, is presently being constructed. A RF-based accelerator consists of a compact, 3 MeV S-band hybrid gun capable of velocity bunching to bunch lengths in the 100s fs range with 100s pC of charge. This beam is accelerated by an 1.5 m S-band linac with a peak output energy of 30 MeV which can be directed to either a secondary beamline or remain on the main beamline for final acceleration by a SLAC 3 m S-band linac to an energy of 80 MeV. Further acceleration by advanced boosters such as a cryo-cooled C-band structure or numerous optical or wakefield methods is under active investigation. In combination with a 3 TW Ti:Sapphire laser, initial proof of principle experiments will be conducted on topics including the ultra-compact x-ray free-electron laser, advanced dielectric wakefield acceleration, bi-harmonic nonlinear inverse Compton scattering, and various radiation detectors. Furthermore, development of a tertiary beamline based on an ultra low emittance, cryo-cooled gun will eventually enable two-beam experiments, expanding the facility’s unique experimental capabilities., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

Plasma dynamics and crater formation of laser excited volumes in solids is a complex process due to thermalization, shockwave formation, varying absorption mechanisms, and a wide range of relevant physics timescales. The properties and interaction of such laser-matter systems can be modeled using an equation of state and opacity based multi-temperature treatment of plasma using a radiation hydrodynamics code. Here, we use FLASH, an adaptive mesh radiation-hydrodynamics code, to simulate the plasma expansion following after the initial energy deposition and thermalization of the column, to benchmark the results of experiments undertaken at UCLA on optical laser ablation. These computational results help develop a quantitative understanding of the material excitation process and enable the optimization of the gain medium delivery system for the x-ray laser oscillator project *., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

Plasma wakefield acceleration using the electron linear accelerator test facility, SAMURAI, can be used to study the Jovian electron spectrum due to the high energy spread of the beam after the plasma interaction. The SAMURAI RF facility which is currently being constructed and commissioned at UCLA, is is capable of producing beams with 10 MeV energy, 2 nC charge, and 200 fsec bunch lengths with a 4 um emittance. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are used to study the beam spectrum that would be generated from plasma interaction. Experimental methods and diagnostics are discussed in this paper., Proceedings of the 5th North American Particle Accelerator Conference, NAPAC2022, Albuquerque, NM, USA

Betatron radiation that arises during plasma wakefield acceleration can be measured by a UCLA-built Compton spectrometer, which records the energy and angular position of incoming photons. Because information about the properties of the beam is encoded in the betatron radiation, measurements of the radiation can be used to reconstruct beam parameters. One method of extracting information about beam parameters from measurements of radiation is maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), a statistical technique which is used to determine unknown parameters from a distribution of observed data. In addition, machine learning methods, which are increasingly being implemented for different fields of beam diagnostics, can also be applied. We assess the ability of both MLE and other machine learning methods to accurately extract beam parameters from measurements., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

To calculate the energy levels of the photons emitted from high-energy particle interactions, the new pair spectrometer (PEDRO) channels the photons through several Beryllium nuclear fields to produce electron-positron pairs through the nuclear field interaction. This project compared several methods of reconstruction and determined which best predicts original energy distributions based on simulated spectra. These methods included using Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Machine Learning, and directly analyzing a response matrix that modeled PEDRO’s response to any photon energy distribution. We report that performing the direct analysis, also known as QR decomposition, on a PEDRO-generated spectrum provides by far the most accurate calculation of the spectrum’s original energy distribution. These methods were tested against results from experimental cases, including Nonlinear Compton Scattering and Filamentation., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

The dense drive beam used in plasma wakefield acceleration generates a linear focusing force that causes electrons inside the witness beam to undergo betatron oscillations, giving rise to betatron radiation. Because information about the properties of the beam is encoded in the betatron radiation, measurements of the radiation such as those recorded by the UCLA-built Compton spectrometer can be used to reconstruct beam parameters. Two possible methods of extracting information about beam parameters from measurements of radiation are machine learning (ML), which is increasingly being implemented for different fields of beam diagnostics, and a statistical technique known as maximum likelihood estimation (MLE). We assess the ability of both machine learning and MLE methods to accurately extract beam parameters from measurements of betatron radiation., Proceedings of the 5th North American Particle Accelerator Conference, NAPAC2022, Albuquerque, NM, USA

The Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests (FACET-II) is a test accelerator infrastructure at SLAC dedicated to the research and development of advanced accelerator technologies. We performed simulations of electron beam driven wakefields, with collinear lasers used for ionization injection of electrons. We numerically generated a witness beam using the OSIRIS code in an up ramp plasma as well as uniform plasma regimes. We report on challenges and details of the E-310 experiment which aims to demonstrate this plasma photocathode injection at FACET-II. We examine the phenomena beam hosing and drive beam depletion. Details of the witness beam generated are discussed. Computation of betatron-radiation X-ray spatial distribution and critical energy are done for FACET-II low emittance beams., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

The extremely intense beam generated at FACET-II provides the unique opportunity to investigate the effects of beam-driven GV/m fields in dielectrics exceeding meter-long interaction lengths. The diverse range of phenomena to be explored, such as material response in the terahertz regime, suppression of high-field pulse damping effects, advanced geometry structures, and methods for beam break up (BBU) mitigation, all within a single UHV vacuum vessel, requires flexibility and precision in the experimental layout. We present here details of the experimental design for the dielectric program at FACET-II. Specifically, consideration is given to the alignment of the dielectric structures due to the extreme fields associated with the electron beam, as well as implementation of electron beam and Cherenkov radiation-based diagnostics., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

Wakefields in dielectric structures are a useful tool for beam diagnostics and manipulation with applications including acceleration, shaping, chirping, and THz radiation generation. It is possible to use the produced THz radiation to diagnose the fields produced during the DWA interaction but, to do so, it is necessary to effectively out-couple this radiation to free space for transport to diagnostics such as a bolometer or interferometer. To this end, simulations have been conducted using CST Studio for a 10 GeV beam with FACET-II parameters in a slab-symmetric, dielectric waveguide. Various termination geometries were studied including flat cuts, metal horns, and the "Vlasov antenna". Simulations indicate that the Vlasov antenna geometry is optimal and detailed studies were conducted on a variety of dielectrics including quartz, diamond, and silicon. Multiple modes were excited and coherent Cherenkov radiation (CCR) was computationally generated for both symmetric and asymmetric beams. Finally, we include witness beams to study transport and acceleration dynamics as well as the achievable field gradients., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

UCLA has recently constructed SAMURAI, a new radiation bunker and laser infrastructure for advanced accelerator research. In its first phase, we will build a 30 MeV photoinjector with an S-band hybrid gun. The beam dynamics simulation for this beamline showed the generation of the beam with the emittance 2.4 um and the peak current 270 A. FIR-FEL experiments are planned in this beamline. The saturation peak power was expected at 170 MW., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

Future plasma acceleration experiments at FACET-II will measure betatron radiation in order to provide single-shot non-destructive beam diagnostics. We discuss three models for betatron radiation: a new idealized particle tracking code with Liénard-Wiechert radiation, a Quasi-Static Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code with Liénard-Wiechert radiation, and a full PIC code with radiation computed via a Monte-Carlo QED Method. Predictions of the three models for the E-310 experiment are presented and compared. Finally, we discuss beam parameter reconstruction from the double differential radiation spectrum., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

The ultra-compact x-ray free-electron laser (UC-XFEL), described in [J. B. Rosenzweig, et al. 2020 New J. Phys. 22 093067], combines several cutting edge beam physics techniques and technologies to realize an x-ray free electron laser at a fraction of the cost and footprint of existing XFEL installations. These elements include cryogenic, normally conducting RF structures for both the gun and linac, IFEL bunch compression, and short-period undulators. In this work, several stepping-stone, demonstrator scenarios under discussion for the UCLA SAMURAI Laboratory are detailed and simulated, employing different subsets of these elements. The cost, footprint, and technology risk for these scenarios are considered in addition to the anticipated engineering and physics experience gained., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

The Compton spectrometer under development at UCLA for FACET-II is a versatile tool to analyze gamma-ray spectra in a single shot, in which the energy and angular position of the incoming photons are recorded by observing the momenta and position of Compton scattered electrons. We present methods to reconstruct the primary spectrum from these data via machine learning and the EM Algorithm. A multi-layer fully connected neural network is used to perform the regression task of reconstructing both the double-differential spectrum and the photon energy spectrum incident with zero angular offset. We present the expected performance of these techniques, concentrating on the achievable energy resolution., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

X-ray laser oscillator, dubbed XLO, is a recently proposed project at SLAC to build the first population inversion X-ray laser. XLO utilizes a train of XFEL SASE pulses to pump atomic core-states. The resulting amplified spontaneous emission radiation is recirculated in a backscattering Bragg cavity and subsequently amplified. XLO could provide fully coherent, transform-limited X-ray pulses with 50 meV bandwidth and 1e10 photons. Currently, XLO is being considered for operation at the copper K-alpha line at 8048 eV. In this work, we focus on the optimization of gain medium delivery in the XLO cavity. We consider a fast, subsonic jet of copper nitrate solution, moving through a cylindrical nozzle. We focus on the nozzle geometry optimization and possible diagnostics of the jet-XFEL interaction point., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

At UCLA’s SAMURAI Laboratory, there will be a need for beam optics to accommodate operation over a range of beam energies. We present a modular quadrupole design that, in addition to satisfying this requirement, incorporates interchangeable tapered end-pieces for mitigation of higher-order aberrations *. The design progresses in an iterative fashion, whereby the tapered shapes, generated algorithmically, are fed into a field solver, and then the aberrations of the resulting particle trajectories are calculated and minimized., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

We present the design of a Compton spectrometer for use at FACET-II. A sextupole is used for magnetic spectral analysis, giving a broad dynamic range (180 keV through 28 MeV) and the capability to capture an energy-angular double-differential spectrum in a single shot. At low gamma energies, below 1 MeV, Compton spectroscopy becomes increasingly challenging as the scattering cross-section becomes more isotropic. To extend the range of the spectrometer down to around 180 keV, we use a 3D-printed tungsten collimator at the detector plane to preferentially select forward-scattered electrons at the Compton edge., Proceedings of the 12th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2021, Campinas, SP, Brazil

Dielectric Laser Acceleration (DLA) achieves the high- est gradients among structure-based electron accelerators. The use of dielectrics increases the breakdown field limit, and thus the achievable gradient, by a factor of at least 10 in comparison to metals. Experimental demonstrations of DLA in 2013 led to the Accelerator on a Chip International Program (ACHIP), funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. In ACHIP, our main goal is to build an acceler- ator on a silicon chip, which can accelerate electrons from below 100keV to above 1MeV with a gradient of at least 100MeV/m. For stable acceleration on the chip, magnet- only focusing techniques are insufficient to compensate the strong acceleration defocusing. Thus spatial harmonic and Alternating Phase Focusing (APF) laser-based focusing tech- niques have been developed. We have also developed the simplified symplectic tracking code DLAtrack6D, which makes use of the periodicity and applies only one kick per DLA cell, which is calculated by the Fourier coefficient of the synchronous spatial harmonic. Due to coupling, the Fourier coefficients of neighboring cells are not entirely independent and a field flatness optimization (similarly as in multi-cell cavities) needs to be performed. The simu- lation of the entire accelerator on a chip by a Particle In Cell (PIC) code is possible, but impractical for optimization purposes. Finally, we have also outlined the treatment of wake field effects in attosecond bunches in the grating within DLAtrack6D, where the wake function is computed by an external solver., Proceedings of the 13th Int. Computational Accelerator Physics Conf., ICAP2018, Key West, FL, USA