Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Conceptual Design Report

Abstract

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of California at Los Angeles, have collaborated to create a conceptual design for a Free-Electron-Laser (FEL) R&D facility operating in the wavelength range 1.5-15 {angstrom}. This FEL, called the ''Linac Coherent Light Source'' (LCLS), utilizes the SLAC linac and produces sub-picosecond pulses of short wavelength x-rays with very high peak brightness and full transverse coherence. The first two-thirds of the SLAC linac are used for injection into the PEP-II storage rings. The last one-third will be converted to a source of electrons for the LCLS. The electrons will be transported to the SLAC Final Focus Test Beam (FFTB) Facility, which will be extended to house a 122-m undulator system. In passing through the undulators, the electrons will be bunched by the force of their own synchrotron radiation to produce an intense, spatially coherent beam of x-rays, tunable in energy from 0.8 keV to 8 keV. The LCLS will include two experiment halls as well as x-ray optics and infrastructure necessary to make use of this x-ray beam for research in a variety of disciplines such as atomic physics, materials science, plasma physics and biosciences. This Conceptual Design Report, the authors believe, confirms the feasibility of constructing an x-ray FEL based on the SLAC linac.