High-power Free-electron Laser Research Articles

Enhanced X-ray free-electron laser performance with optical klystron and helical undulators.

This article presents a demonstration of the improved performance of an X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) using the optical klystron mechanism and helical undulator configuration, in comparison with the common planar undulator configuration without optical klystron. The demonstration was carried out at Athos, the soft X-ray beamline of SwissFEL. Athos has variable-polarization undulators, and small magnetic chicanes placed between every two undulators to fully exploit the optical klystron. It was found that, for wavelengths of 1.24 nm and 3.10 nm, the required length to achieve FEL saturation is reduced by about 35% when using both the optical klystron and helical undulators, with each effect accounting for about half of the improvement. Moreover, it is shown that a helical undulator configuration provides a 20% to 50% higher pulse energy than planar undulators. This work represents an important step towards more compact and high-power FELs, rendering this key technology more efficient, affordable and accessible to the scientific community.

Ultrashort large-bandwidth X-ray free-electron laser generation with a dielectric-lined waveguide.

Large-bandwidth pulses produced by cutting-edge X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) are of great importance in research fields like material science and biology. In this paper, a new method to generate high-power ultrashort FEL pulses with tunable spectral bandwidth with spectral coherence using a dielectric-lined waveguide without interfering operation of linacs is proposed. By exploiting the passive and dephasingless wakefield at terahertz frequency excited by the beam, stable energy modulation can be achieved in the electron beam and large-bandwidth high-intensity soft X-ray radiation can be generated. Three-dimensional start-to-end simulations have been carried out and the results show that coherent radiation pulses with duration of a few femtoseconds and bandwidths ranging from 1.01% to 2.16% can be achieved by changing the undulator taper profile.

Chirped-Pulse Amplification in an Echo-Enabled Harmonic-Generation Free-Electron Laser

The field of ultrafast science has experienced significant growth over the last decade, largely attributed to advancements in optical and laser technologies such as chirped-pulse amplification and high-harmonic generation. The distinctive characteristics of intense ultrafast free-electron lasers (FELs) have introduced novel prospects for investigating molecular dynamics, as well as providing an opportunity to gain deeper insights into nonlinear processes in materials. Therefore, high-power ultrafast FELs can be widely used for both fundamental research and practical applications. This study presents a novel approach for producing high-power femtosecond FEL pulses, utilizing chirped-pulse amplification in echo-enabled harmonic generation. Chirped seed pulses are employed to induce frequency-chirped energy modulation in the electron beam. The generated FEL pulse, which inherits the chirped frequency, can be compressed through the gratings in the off-plane mount geometry to provide ultraintense ultrafast pulses. The numerical modeling results indicate that peak power exceeding 20 GW and a pulse duration in the order of several femtoseconds can be achieved.

Superconducting radio frequency photoinjectors for CW-XFEL

A dependable and consistent electron source is a crucial requirement for the achievement of high-power free electron lasers (FELs). Over the past two decades, it has been demonstrated that photoinjectors based on SRF technology (SRF guns) are suitable for continuous wave (CW) beam generation. SRF guns possess both the high accelerating field gradients of normal conducting RF photoinjectors and the low power dissipation thanks to mature SRF cavity technology, and therefore have the potential to provide the high-brightness, high-current beams required for CW-XFELs. After the demonstration of the first SRF gun in Dresden-Rossendorf, several SRF gun programs based on different approaches have achieved promising progress and even succeeded in routine operation. SRF guns are expected to play an important role in XFEL facilities in the near future. In this paper, we give an overview of design concepts, important parameters and development status of the worldwide SRF gun projects.

Proposal of an operation mode of FELiChEM for generating high-power ultra-short infrared FEL pulses

FELiChEM is a new infrared free-electron laser (FEL) oscillator user facility in Hefei, and has achieved the first lasing at 15μm in June, 2019. To improve the temporal resolution for fulfilling the user demands, in this context, we propose an operation mode of generating high-power ultra-short FEL pulses by shortening the electron bunch and enhancing the FEL gain with a small cavity length detuning. The existing magnetic chicane is used to compress the electron bunch and increase its peak current. Taking the 10μm FEL as an example, start-to-end simulations demonstrate that the FEL power can be greatly enhanced while the pulse duration is as short as one hundred femtoseconds. An energy slit provides an additional option that can further shorten the bunch length and reduce the energy spread by cutting off the bunch head and tail. With the energy slit on, all the minor spikes inside the FEL pulse will be further suppressed and only the main spike will be preserved.

Generation and Characterization of Intense Ultralow-Emittance Electron Beams for Compact X-Ray Free-Electron Lasers.

The transverse emittance of the electron beam is a fundamental parameter in linac-based x-ray free-electron lasers (FELs). We present results of emittance measurements carried out at SwissFEL, a compact x-ray FEL facility at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, including a description of the novel high-resolution measurement techniques and the optimization procedure. We obtained slice emittance values at the undulator entrance down to 200nm for an electron beam with a charge of 200pC and an rms duration of 30-40fs. Furthermore, we achieved slice emittances as low as 100nm for 10pC beams with few fs duration. These values set new standards for electron linear accelerators. The quality, verification, and control of our electron beams allowed us to generate high-power FEL radiation for a wavelength as short as 0.1nm using an electron beam with an energy of only 6GeV. The emittance values demonstrated at SwissFEL would allow producing hard x-ray FEL pulses with even lower-energy beams, thus paving the way for even more compact and cost-effective FEL facilities.

Construction and commissioning of the compact energy-recovery linac at KEK

Energy-recovery linacs (ERLs) are promising for advanced synchrotron light sources, high-power free electron lasers (FELs), high-brightness gamma-ray sources, and electron–ion colliders. To demonstrate the critical technology of ERL-based light sources, we have designed and constructed a test accelerator, the compact ERL (cERL). Using advanced technology that includes a photocathode direct current (DC) electron gun and two types of 1.3-GHz-frequency superconducting cavities, the cERL was designed to be capable of recirculating low emittance (≤1 mm⋅ mrad) and high average-current (≥10 mA) electron beams while recovering the beam energy. During initial commissioning, the cERL demonstrated successful recirculation of high-quality beams with normalized transverse emittance of ∼0.14 mm⋅ mrad and momentum spread of ∼1.2 × 10−4 (rms) at a beam energy of 20 MeV and bunch charge below 100 fC. Energy recovery in the superconducting main linac was also demonstrated for high-average-current continuous-wave beams. These results constitute an important milestone toward realizing ERL-based light sources.

Identification and Partial Structural Characterization of Mass Isolated Valsartan and Its Metabolite with Messenger Tagging Vibrational Spectroscopy.

Recent advances in the coupling of vibrational spectroscopy with mass spectrometry create new opportunities for the structural characterization of metabolites with great sensitivity. Previous studies have demonstrated this scheme on 300 K ions using very high power free electron lasers in the fingerprint region of the infrared. Here we extend the scope of this approach to a single investigator scale as well as extend the spectral range to include the OH stretching fundamentals. This is accomplished by detecting the IR absorptions in a linear action regime by photodissociation of weakly bound N2 molecules, which are attached to the target ions in a cryogenically cooled, rf ion trap. We consider the specific case of the widely used drug Valsartan and two isomeric forms of its metabolite. Advantages and challenges of the cold ion approach are discussed, including disentangling the role of conformers and the strategic choices involved in the selection of the charging mechanism that optimize spectral differentiation among candidate structural isomers. In this case, the Na+ complexes are observed to yield sharp resonances in the high frequency NH and OH stretching regions, which can be used to easily differentiate between two isomers of the metabolite. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

Novosibirsk Free Electron Laser: Recent Achievements and Future Prospects

Free electron lasers (FELs) are unique sources of electromagnetic radiation with tunable wavelength. A high-power FEL has been created at the G. I.Budker Institute for Nuclear Physics. Its radiation frequency can be tuned over a wide range in the terahertz and infrared spectral ranges. As the source of electron bunches, this FEL uses a multi-turn energy-recovery linac, which has five straight sections. Three sections are used for three FELs which operate in different wavelength ranges (90–240 μm for the first, 37–80 μm for the second, and 5–20 μm for the third ones). The first and the second FELs were commissioned in 2003 and 2009, respectively. They are used for various applied and research problems now. The third FEL is installed on the last, forth accelerator loop, in which the electron energy is the maximum. It comprises three undulator sections and a 40 m optical cavity. The first lasing of this FEL was obtained in the summer of 2015. The radiation wavelength was 9 μm and the average power was about 100 W. The design power is 1 kW at a pulse repetition rate of 3.75 MHz. Radiation of the third FEL will be delivered to user stations from the protected hall in the near future. The third FEL commissioning results are presented and the current status of the first and second FELs as well as their future development prospects are described.

Undulator beamline optimization with integrated chicanes for X-ray free-electron-laser facilities.

An optimization of the undulator layout of X-ray free-electron-laser (FEL) facilities based on placing small chicanes between the undulator modules is presented. The installation of magnetic chicanes offers the following benefits with respect to state-of-the-art FEL facilities: reduction of the required undulator length to achieve FEL saturation, improvement of the longitudinal coherence of the FEL pulses, and the ability to produce shorter FEL pulses with higher power levels. Numerical simulations performed for the soft X-ray beamline of the SwissFEL facility show that optimizing the advantages of the layout requires shorter undulator modules than the standard ones. This proposal allows a very compact undulator beamline that produces fully coherent FEL pulses and it makes possible new kinds of experiments that require very short and high-power FEL pulses.

The Novosibirsk Free Electron Laser – Unique Source of Terahertz and Infrared Coherent Radiation

The high-power free electron laser (FEL) facility NovoFEL has been created at Budker INP. Its wavelength can be tuned over a wide range in terahertz and infrared spectrum regions. This FEL uses a multi-turn energy recovery linac with five straight sections as a source of electron beam. Three sections are used for three FELs which operate in different wavelength ranges (the first at 90-240 μm; the second at 37 – 80 μm; the third at 5 – 20 μm).The first and second FELs were commissioned in 2003 and 2009, respectively. They operate for users now. The third FEL is installed on the fourth accelerator track, which is the last one; the electron energy is maximal here. This FEL comprises three undulator sections and a 40-m optical cavity. The first lasing of this FEL was obtained in the summer of 2015. The radiation wavelength was 9 μm and the average power was about 100 W. Radiation of the third FEL was delivered to the user stations, and the first user shifts were performed recently. The results of the commissioning of the third FEL, the current status of the first and second FELs and future development prospects are presented.

Stability analysis for electron orbits in a harmonic wiggler

A high-power free-electron laser is operated at a high electron beam current and high wiggler magnetic field, and the stability of the electron motion under those conditions is important for obtaining sufficiently large gain and high efficiency. In this study, a harmonic wiggler was used to improve the stability of the electron beam. Guiding-center variables were applied to analyze the complex electron motion in the electric and magnetic fields in combination with the wiggler magnetic field, the axial-guide magnetic field, and the self-generated field. The steady-state orbits of an electron in the harmonic wiggler were calculated analytically, and the Poincar+AOg surface of section plot was generated to distinguish between regular and chaotic behavior in the electron orbits. Finally, when the harmonic wiggler was used, the electron orbits were found to become stable compared with those in the conventional wiggler.

Characteristics of ground state electronic structures of ionized atoms and rules of their orbital competitions

Ionized atoms widely exist in plasmas, and studies of properties of ionized atoms are the foundations of frontier science researches such as astrophysics and controlled nuclear fusions. For example, the information about the ground configurations of atoms is required for accurately calculating the physical quantities such as energy levels and dynamical processes. The configurations for different ionized atoms can be obtained with the photo-electron energy spectrum experiment, however it is very time-consuming to obtain so many data of all ions. Therefore the more economical theoretical study will be of great importance. As is well known, the configurations of neutral atoms can be determined according to Mendeleev order while those of highly ionized atoms are hydrogen-like due to the strong Coulombic potential of their nuclei. Then with the variations of ionization degree and atomic number along the periodic table, there would appear the interesting competitions between electronic orbitals. Although some theoretical results exist for ions 3 Z 118, 3 Ne 105 (where Z is the atomic number and Ne is the electron number), there are many errors in the results for highly ionized atoms. Therefore, the ground configurations of ionized atoms and their orbital competitions still deserve to be systematically studied. Based on the independent electron approximation, we calculate the energy levels of all possible competition configurations of all the neutral and ionized atoms in the extended periodic tables (2 Z 119) by Dirac-Slater method. Then the ground configurations are determined by calculating the chosen lowest total energy. The advantages of Dirac- Slater method are as follows. 1) It has been shown that the Dirac-Slater calculation is accurate enough for studying the ground properties of atoms, such as the 1st threshold, and that higher accuracy will be obtained for highly ionized atoms, because the electron correlation becomes less important. 2) Furthermore, with Dirac-Slater method we can obtain the localized self-consistent potential, thereby we can study the orbital competition rules for different atoms. Using the three of our designed atomic orbital competition graphs, all of our calculated ground configurations for over 7000 ionized atoms are conveniently expressed. We systematically summarize the rules of orbital competitions for different elements in different periods. We elucidate the mechanism of orbital competition (i.e., orbital collapsing) with the help of self-consistent atomic potential of ionized atoms. Also we compare the orbital competition rules for different periods of transition elements, the rare-earth and transuranium elements with the variation of the self-consistent filed for different periods. On this basis, we summarize the relationship between the orbital competitions and some bulk properties for some elements, such as the superconductivity, the optical properties, the mechanical strength, and the chemistry activities. We find that there exist some abnormal orbital competitions for some lowly ionized and neutral atoms which may lead to the unique bulk properties for the element. With the ground state electronic structures of ionized atoms, we can construct the basis of accurate quasi-complete configuration interaction (CI) calculations, and further accurately calculate the physical quantities like the energy levels, transition rates, collision cross section, etc. Therefore we can meet the requirements of scientific researches such as the analysis of high-power free-electron laser experiments and the accurate measurement of the mass of nuclei.

Stabilization of a high-order harmonic generation seeded extreme ultraviolet free electron laser by time-synchronization control with electro-optic sampling

A fully coherent free electron laser (FEL) seeded with a higher-order harmonic (HH) pulse from high-order harmonic generation (HHG) is successfully operated for a sufficiently prolonged time in pilot user experiments by using a timing drift feedback. For HHG-seeded FELs, the seeding laser pulses have to be synchronized with electron bunches. Despite seeded FELs being non-chaotic light sources in principle, external laser-seeded FELs are often unstable in practice because of a timing jitter and a drift between the seeding laser pulses and the accelerated electron bunches. Accordingly, we constructed a relative arrival-timing monitor based on non-invasive electro-optic sampling (EOS). The EOS monitor made uninterrupted shot-to-shot monitoring possible even during the seeded FEL operation. The EOS system was then used for arrival-timing feedback with an adjustability of 100 fs for continual operation of the HHG-seeded FEL. Using the EOS-based beam drift controlling system, the HHG-seeded FEL was operated over half a day with an effective hit rate of 20%–30%. The output pulse energy was $20~{\rm\mu}\text{J}$ at the 61.2 nm wavelength. Towards seeded FELs in the water window region, we investigated our upgrade plan to seed high-power FELs with HH photon energy of 30–100 eV and lase at shorter wavelengths of up to 2 nm through high-gain harmonic generation (HGHG) at the energy-upgraded SPring-8 Compact SASE Source (SCSS) accelerator. We studied a benefit as well as the feasibility of the next HHG-seeded FEL machine with single-stage HGHG with tunability of a lasing wavelength.

Optimizing the configuration of a superconducting photonic band gap accelerator cavity to increase the maximum achievable gradients

We present a design of a superconducting rf photonic band gap (SRF PBG) accelerator cell with specially shaped rods in order to reduce peak surface magnetic fields and improve the effectiveness of the PBG structure for suppression of higher order modes (HOMs). The ability of PBG structures to suppress long-range wakefields is especially beneficial for superconducting electron accelerators for high power free-electron lasers (FELs), which are designed to provide high current continuous duty electron beams. Using PBG structures to reduce the prominent beam-breakup phenomena due to HOMs will allow significantly increased beam-breakup thresholds. As a result, there will be possibilities for increasing the operation frequency of SRF accelerators and for the development of novel compact high-current accelerator modules for the FELs.

Design study of an improved laser wire system for electron beam measurement

The laser wire (LW) method has been demonstrated to be an effective non-interceptive technique for measuring transverse profile and emittance of electron beams in colliders, storage rings and dumping rings. In this paper, we present an improved design of high repetition LW system for high average power free electron lasers (HAP FELs) and energy recovery linacs (ERLs). This improved LW utilizes the excess power of the photocathode drive laser, thus making itself much cheaper and simpler. The system main parameters are optimized with numerical calculations and Monte Carlo simulations, indicating that resolutions would be better than 100 μm and scanning time less than 1 minute. Status of the experiment preparation is also presented.

High average power free-electron lasers

Ever since the first free-electron laser (FEL) was both con- ceived and demonstrated in the 1970s at Stanford, it has attracted much attention as a promising foundation for a high average power light source. Since its light is produced from free electrons, an FEL can be designed to lase at virtually any wavelength. Furthermore, since its light is generated from a relativistic beam that is continually replenished, its gain medium cannot be damaged by any conventional means. Accord- ingly, as there have been several ambitious attempts to design and construct high average power FELs over the past several decades, we chronicle some of these efforts. Additionally, we provide an overview of FEL technology and theory, discuss some of the obstacles that remain in the construction of a high-power FEL, and provide a road map toward a megawatt-class device. © 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers

Surface science analysis of GaAs photocathodes following sustained electron beam delivery

Degradation of the photocathode materials employed in photoinjectors represents a challenge for sustained operation of nuclear physics accelerators and high power free electron lasers (FEL). Photocathode quantum efficiency degradation is due to residual gases in the electron source vacuum system being ionized and accelerated back to the photocathode. These investigations are a first attempt to characterize the nature of the photocathode degradation, and employ multiple surface and bulk analysis techniques to investigate damage mechanisms including sputtering of the Cs-oxidant surface monolayer, other surface chemistry effects, and ion implantation. Surface and bulk analysis studies were conducted on two GaAs photocathodes, which were removed from the JLab FEL DC photoemission gun after delivering electron beam, and two control samples. The analysis techniques include helium ion microscopy, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), atomic force microscopy, and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). In addition, two high-polarization strained superlattice GaAs photocathode samples, one removed from the continuous electron beam accelerator facility (CEBAF) photoinjector and one unused, were also analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and SIMS. It was found that heat cleaning the FEL GaAs wafer introduces surface roughness, which seems to be reduced by prolonged use. The bulk GaAs samples retained a fairly well organized crystalline structure after delivering beam but show evidence of Cs depletion on the surface. Within the precision of the SIMS and RBS measurements, the data showed no indication of hydrogen implantation or lattice damage from ion back bombardment in the bulk GaAs wafers. In contrast, SIMS and TEM measurements of the strained superlattice photocathode show clear crystal damage in the wafer from ion back bombardment.

Narrow-band terahertz Bragg reflectors based on coupling of propagating and quasi-critical waves

We consider a planar system of narrow-band Bragg reflectors in which the transformation of an incident wave into a counterpropagating wave occurs via the excitation of a quasi-critical mode. The period of the structure with a new modification of Bragg mirrors is approximately twice as large as that in the traditional case, in which direct coupling between two counterpropagating waves takes place. Analysis of modified Bragg structures based on the method of coupled waves, in which high-frequency fields are quasi-optical beams, demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed system of reflectors for the spacing between corrugated plates from 10 to 15 wavelengths λ. These conclusions were confirmed by direct numerical simulation. Such a superdimensionality is sufficient for using modified Bragg reflectors in high-power long-pulse free-electron lasers operating at short-wave frequency ranges up to the terahertz range.

Design and operation of a superconducting quarter-wave electron gun

Superconducting radio-frequency electron guns are viewed by many as the preferred technology for generating the high-quality, high-current beams needed for future high power free-electron lasers and energy recovery linacs. All previous guns of this type have employed elliptical cavities, but there are potential advantages associated with other geometries. Here we describe the design, commissioning, and initial results from a superconducting radio-frequency electron gun employing a quarter-wave resonator configuration, the first such device to be built and tested. In initial operation, the gun has generated beams with bunch charge in excess of 78 pC, energy of 469 keV, and normalized rms emittances of about $4.9\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$. Currently, bunch charge is limited by the available drive laser energy, and beam energy is limited by x-ray production and the available rf power. No fundamental limits on beam charge or energy have been encountered, and no high-field quenching events have been observed.