Core Emittance Research Articles

Gigahertz repetition rate thermionic electron gun concept

We present a novel concept for the generation of gigahertz repetition rate high brightness electron bunches. A custom design 100 kV thermionic gun provides a continuous electron beam, with the current determined by the filament size and temperature. A 1 GHz rectangular RF cavity deflects the beam across a knife-edge, creating a pulsed beam. Adding a higher harmonic mode to this cavity results in a flattened magnetic field profile which increases the duty cycle to 30%. Finally, a compression cavity induces a negative longitudinal velocity-time chirp in a bunch, initiating ballistic compression. Adding a higher harmonic mode to this cavity increases the linearity of this chirp and thus decreases the final bunch length. Charged particle simulations show that with a 0.15 mm radius LaB6 filament held at 1760 K, this method can create 279 fs, 3.0 pC electron bunches with a radial rms core emittance of 0.089 mm mrad at a repetition rate of 1 GHz.

Design, conditioning, and performance of a high voltage, high brightness dc photoelectron gun with variable gap.

A new high voltage photoemission gun has been constructed at Cornell University which features a segmented insulator and a movable anode, allowing the cathode-anode gap to be adjusted. In this work, we describe the gun's overall mechanical and high voltage design, the surface preparation of components, as well as the clean construction methods. We present high voltage conditioning data using a 50 mm cathode-anode gap, in which the conditioning voltage exceeds 500 kV, as well as at smaller gaps. Finally, we present simulated emittance results obtained from a genetic optimization scheme using voltage values based on the conditioning data. These results indicate that for charges up to 100 pC, a 30 mm gap at 400 kV has equal or smaller 100% emittance than a 50 mm gap at 450 kV, and also a smaller core emittance, when placed as the source for the Cornell energy recovery linac photoinjector with bunch length constrained to be <3 ps rms. For 100 pC up to 0.5 nC charges, the 50 mm gap has larger core emittance than the 30 mm gap, but conversely smaller 100% emittance.

Beam diffusion measurements using collimator scans in the LHC

The time evolution of beam losses during a collimator scan provides information on halo diffusion and population. This is an essential input for machine performance characterization and for the design of collimation systems. Beam halo measurements in the CERN Large Hadron Collider were conducted through collimator scrapings in a dedicated beam study for the first time at 4 TeV. Four scans were performed with two collimators, in the vertical plane for beam 1 and horizontally for beam 2, before and after bringing the beams into collisions. Inward and outward steps were performed. A diffusion model was used to interpret the observed loss rate evolution in response to the collimator steps. With this technique, diffusion coefficients were estimated as a function of betatron oscillation amplitude from approximately 3 to 7 standard deviations of the transverse beam distribution. A comparison of halo diffusion and core emittance growth rates is also presented.

Practical transverse matching of the high-intensity SNS Linac

It is important to accomplish adequate matching for a high intensity linear accelerator such as the SNS linac to minimize the mismatch and potential beam loss. In the early stage of the SNS linac design, there was a discussion over whether to match the core or to match the tail. The present study shows that the matching by minimizing rms emittances reduces both the core emittance and the beam tail, providing a stable and unambiguous matching for the SNS Drift Tube Linac, when an emittance scanner is available. For the transverse matching of other sections of the SNS linac where only wire-scanners are available, we use beam size data obtained from multiple wire-scanners installed in series to do the matching with the help of an envelope code such as Trace3D. It is verified that matching is improved through the matching technique based on the beam profile measurements from wire-scanners in series.

Observation of octupole driven resonance phenomena with space charge at the CERN Proton Synchrotron

Several benchmarking space charge experiments have been performed during the last few years in the CERN Proton Synchrotron. These controlled experiments are of paramount importance to validate the present very powerful simulation codes. The observations of the combined effect of space charge and nonlinear resonance on beam loss and emittance, using a single controllable octupole during ∼1 s at 1.4 GeV kinetic energy, are discussed in some detail in the present paper. By lowering the working point towards the octupolar resonance, a gradual transition from a regime of loss-free core emittance blow-up to a regime of continuous loss was found.

Space charge and octupole driven resonance trapping observed at the CERN Proton Synchrotron

The combined effect of space charge and nonlinear resonance on beam loss and emittance was measured in a benchmarking experiment over a 1.2 s long flat bottom at 1.4 GeV kinetic energy in the presence of a single controllable octupole. By lowering the working point towards the resonance, a gradual transition from a loss-free core emittance blowup to a regime dominated by continuous loss was found. We compare the observation with 3D simulations based on a new analytical space charge model and obtain good agreement in the emittance blowup regime. Our explanation is in terms of the synchrotron oscillation, which causes a periodic tune modulation due to space charge, and leads to trapping and detrapping on the resonance islands. For working points very close to the resonance this induces a beam halo with large radius. The underlying dynamics is studied in detail, and it is claimed that the predicted halo in conjunction with a reduced dynamic aperture for the real machine lattice is the source of the loss observed in the experiment.