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Scientific reports 7(1), 2431(2017). doi:10.1038/s41598-017-02184-3, Free-electron lasers are unique sources of intense and ultra-short x-ray pulses that led to major scientific breakthroughs across disciplines from matter to materials and life sciences. The essential element of these devices are micrometer-sized electron bunches with high peak currents, low energy spread, and low emittance. Advanced FEL concepts such as seeded amplifiers rely on the capability of analyzing and controlling the electron beam properties with few-femtosecond time resolution. One major challenge is to extract tomographic slice parameters instead of projected electron beam properties. Here, we demonstrate that a radio-frequency deflector in combination with a dipole spectrometer not only allows for single-shot extraction of a seeded FEL pulse profile, but also provides information on the electron slice emittance and energy spread. The seeded FEL power profile can be directly related to the derived slice emittance as a function of intra-bunch coordinate with a resolution down to a few femtoseconds., Published by Springer Nature, London

New journal of physics 20, 013010 (2017). doi:10.1088/1367-2630/aa9b4c, We report on a direct time-domain measurement of the temporal properties of a seeded free-electron laser pulse in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range. Utilizing the oscillating electromagnetic field of terahertz radiation, a single-shot THz streak-camera was applied for measuring the duration as well as spectral phase of the generated intense XUV pulses. The experiment was conducted at FLASH, the free electron laser user facility at DESY in Hamburg, Germany. In contrast to indirect methods, this approach directly resolves and visualizes the frequency chirp of a seeded FEL pulse. The reported diagnostic capability is a prerequisite to tailor amplitude, phase and frequency distributions of FEL beams on demand. In particular, it opens up a new window of opportunities for advanced coherent spectroscopic studies making use of the high degree of temporal coherence expected from a seeded FEL pulse., Published by IOP Publ., [Bad Honnef]

The Photo Injector Test Facility at DESY Zeuthen (PITZ) was built to test and optimize electron sources for Free Electron Lasers and future linear colliders. The focus is on the production of intense electron beams with minimum transverse emittance and short bunch length as required for FEL operation. The experimental setup includes a 1.5 cell L-band gun cavity with coaxial RF coupler, a solenoid for space charge compensation, a laser capable to generate long pulse trains with variable temporal and spatial pulse shape, an UHV photo cathode exchange system, and an extensive diagnostics section. This contribution will give an overview on the facility and will mainly discuss the measurements of the electron beam transverse phase space. This will include measurements of the transverse and longitudinal laser profile, beam charge as a function of RF phase, and transverse emittance as a function of different parameters. The corresponding measurements of momentum and momentum spread as well as the RF commissioning results will be summarized. As a first application of the PITZ electron source it will be installed at the TESLA Test Facility Free Electron Laser at DESY Hamburg in autumn 2003.

The Photo Injector Test facility at DESY Zeuthen (PITZ) was built to develop electron sources for the TESLA Test Facility Free Electron Laser and future linear colliders. The main goal is to study the production of minimum transverse emittance beams with short bunch length at medium charge (∼1 nC). The facility includes a 1.5 cell L-band cavity with coaxial RF coupler, a solenoid for space charge compensation, a laser capable to generate long pulse trains, an UHV photo cathode exchange system, and different diagnostics tools. Besides an overview of the facility, its main components and their commissioning, this contribution will concentrate on the first measurements at PITZ with photoelectrons. This will include measurements of the transverse and longitudinal laser profile, charge and quantum efficiency, momentum and momentum spread, transverse electron beam profiles at different locations and first results on transverse emittance.

For photocathode rf guns, the amount of dark current depends on the cavity surface as well as on the photocathodes. Smooth conditioning reduces the amount of dark current. Multipacting in the gun cavity changes the surface status of the cathodes and sometimes obstructs the gun operation because of vacuum interlocks. In this paper, dark current and multipacting features of an rf gun are presented including experimental and simulation studies.

The ability to produce high brightness electron beams as required for modern Free Electron Lasers (FELs) has been demonstrated during the first stage of the Photo Injector Test Facility at DESY Zeuthen (PITZ1). The electron source optimization at PITZ1 was successfully completed, resulting in the installation of the PITZ rf gun at the VUV-FEL (DESY, Hamburg). One of the main goals of the second stage of PITZ (PITZ2) is to apply higher gradients in the rf gun cavity in order to obtain smaller beam emittance by faster acceleration of the space charge dominated beams. In order to reach the required gradients a 10 MW klystron has to be installed and the gun cavity has to be conditioned for higher peak power. Another important goal of PITZ2 is a detailed study of the emittance conservation principle by using proper electron beam acceleration with a booster. Further photo injector optimization, including update of the photocathode laser and diagnostic tools, is foreseen as well. Recent progress on the PITZ developments will be reported.

A wide range of rf photo injector parameters has to be optimized in order to achieve an electron source performance as required for linac based high gain FELs. Some of the machine parameters can not be precisely controlled by direct measurements, whereas the tolerances on them are extremely tight. Therefore, this should be met with beam-based techniques. Procedures for beam-based alignment (BBA) of the laser on the photocathode as well as solenoid alignment have been developed. They were applied at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY at Zeuthen (PITZ) and at the photo injector of the VUV-FEL at DESY at Hamburg. The field balance of the accelerating mode in the 1 1/2 cell gun cavity is one of the key beam dynamics issues of the rf gun. Since no direct field measurement in the half and full cell of the cavity is available for the PITZ gun, a beam-based technique to determine the field balance has been proposed. A beam-based rf phase monitoring proce dure has been developed as well.

In photocathode rf guns, emission mechanisms at the photocathode play a crucial role in the overall beam dynamics. An electron beam with a low bunch charge as well as a short laser pulse length allow to study the emission mechanisms with a good phase definition and with a very small influence of the space charge force. This pa per presents experimental and numerical studies toward detailed understanding of the photo emission and secondary emission processes at the Cs 2 Te cathode.

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.

A setup for the measurement of the longitudinal phase space at the photo injector test facility at DESY Zeuthen is described. The measurements of the momentum distribution, the length of an electron bunch and of their correlation are discussed. The results of the momentum distribution measurement are shown, a maximum mean momentum of 4.7 MeV/c and a RMS momentum spread of 14 keV/c is observed. The setup for the measurement of the bunch length includes a Cherenkov radiator which is used to convert the electron beam into a photon beam with a wavelength in the visible range. The Cherenkov radiation mechanism is chosen in order to measure the bunch length with good time resolution. A silica aerogel radiator with low refractive index will be used. Geant 4 simulations show that a resolution of 0.12 ps can be reached. The time dependent behaviour and the position of the photon bunch will be measured by a streak camera system. A simultaneous measurement of the bunch length and the momentum spread will provide the full information about the longitudinal phase space. The design considerations of the radiators and their properties are discussed.

2003 Particle Accelerator Conference, PAC2003, Portland, USA, 12 May 2003 - 16 May 2003; Hamburg : DESY 34-36 (2003)., The Photo Injector Test facility at DESY Zeuthen (PITZ) was built in order to study the production of high brightness electron beams, which are substantial for the successful operation of Free Electron Lasers (FEL) and linear colliders. The photoinjector at Zeuthen is based on a 1.5-cell L-band rf cavity with coaxial rf coupler equipped with emittance compensating solenoids, a laser capable to generate long pulse trains, an UHV photo cathode exchange system, and various diagnostics tools. The current goal of PITZ is a full characterization of the electron source, which will be installed at the TESLA Test Facility Free Electron Laser (TTF2-FEL) in autumn 2003. In the running periods before the gun is delivered toTTF2-FEL, the rf performance and the beam parameters will be measured in detail. The results presented in this contribution contain the measurements of dark current, driving laser parameters, beam charge, beam size along the facility, transverse emittance, momentum and momentum spread. The electron beam measurements will be presented in comparison with beam dynamics simulations., Published by DESY, Hamburg