Stable High-Brightness Electron Beam System with a Photocathode RF Gun for Short Pulse X-Ray Generation by Thomson Scattering

Abstract

A high-brightness electron accelerator system with a photocathode RF gun and an all-solid stable laser for the photocathode was installed, and a commissioning test was performed to generate short-pulse X-ray beams by the Thomson scattering method. Electron energy was boosted by a linear accelerator (linac) up to 14 MeV. Energy dispersion of the electron beams was measured to be 0.7% (rms). The normalized emittance of the electron beam was 4 πmm-mrad with a 0.4 nC bunch charge. The electron beam size at the interaction point, where the electron beams and high peak power laser light interacted, was measured to be 100 µm (rms). Good stability in the spatial and temporal domains was also obtained.