High-brightness Beam Research Articles

High-power fiber lasers for photocathode electron injectors

Many new applications for electron accelerators require high-brightness, high-average power beams, and most rely on photocathode-based electron injectors as a source of electrons. To achieve such a photoinjector, one requires both a high-power laser system to produce the high average current beam, and also a system at reduced repetition rate for electron beam diagnostics to verify high beam brightness. Here we report on two fiber laser systems designed to meet these specific needs, at 50 MHz and 1.3 GHz repetition rate, together with pulse pickers, second harmonic generation, spatiotemporal beam shaping, intensity feedback, and laser beam transport. The performance and flexibility of these laser systems have allowed us to demonstrate electron beam with both low emittance and high average current for the Cornell energy recovery linac.

Enhancement and Transformation of the Phase Space Density of the NEPOMUC Positron Beam

At NEPOMUC, four different experiments are installed permanently and one beam port is open for positron experiments provided by external users. To match the different demands of these experiments on the phase space density of the positron beam, the established NEPOMUC remoderator was relocated and two novel beam switches were installed to provide the primary high-intensity beam or the remoderated high-brightness beam within short switching times. At the present state, the remoderated beam has a mean diameter of 1.85(35) mm and an intensity of 3.0(3) · 107 e+/s. For the transformation of the longitudinal phase space density a new buncher setup was developed which converts the continuous positron beam into a pulsed beam.

Delivery of 800 W of nearly diffraction-limited laser power through a 100 m long multi-mode fiber

We present the efficient propagation of a nearly diffraction-limited laser beam with a continuous wave power of 800 W through a multi-mode step-index delivery fiber with a core diameter of 30 µm and a numerical aperture of 0.056. The M2-value was measured to be 1.35 after 100 m of this passive fiber. This is an important advance as the delivery fiber length for high-brightness beams in the kilowatt range is usually limited to a few meters by the onset of nonlinear effects. For this demonstration a single-mode MOPA system was set-up consisting of a fiber oscillator and two amplifier stages. This source was coupled into the delivery fiber through a 500 mm long mode field adapter.

Production, formation, and transport of high-brightness atomic hydrogen beam studies for the relativistic heavy ion collider polarized source upgrade

The RHIC polarized H(-) ion source had been successfully upgraded to higher intensity and polarization by using a very high brightness fast atomic beam source developed at BINP, Novosibirsk. In this source the proton beam is extracted by a four-grid multi-aperture ion optical system and neutralized in the H2 gas cell downstream from the grids. The proton beam is extracted from plasma emitter with a low transverse ion temperature of ∼0.2 eV which is formed by plasma jet expansion from the arc plasma generator. The multi-hole grids are spherically shaped to produce "geometrical" beam focusing. Proton beam formation and transport of atomic beam were experimentally studied at test bench.

Neutron Strain Scanning of Fibre and Diode Laser Welds in Stainless Steel and Ti6Al4V

Fibre lasers provide an unprecedented combination of high beam quality, brightness and low cost. Fibre laser beams can provide an exceptionally high power density beam with a relatively large depth of focus. Compared to more established laser welding technologies such as diode laser welding, fibre laser welding produces exceptionally narrow weld beads. As with all types of welding, fibre laser welding produces residual stresses in the material forming and adjacent to the weld. The SALSA instrument at the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) has been used to make neutron diffraction measurements for both fibre and diode laser welded stainless steel 304 and Ti6Al4V. Clear diffraction peaks are obtained from stainless steel 304 and residual stress distributions are obtained. Little variation in residual stress distribution with welding parameters is seen. Ti6Al4V diffraction peaks are complicated by phase transformations on cooling. Transformed beta phase peaks in Ti6Al4V allow the extent of the heat affected zone to be determined.

Computational and experimental characterization of high-brightness beams for femtosecond electron imaging and spectroscopy

Using a multilevel fast multipole method, coupled with the shadow imaging of femtosecond photoelectron pulses for validation, we quantitatively elucidate the photocathode, space charge, and virtual cathode physics, which fundamentally limit the spatiotemporal and spectroscopic resolution and throughput of ultrafast electron microscope (UEM) systems. We present a simple microscopic description to capture the nonlinear beam dynamics based on a two-fluid picture and elucidate an unexpected dominant role of image potential pinning in accelerating the emittance growth process. These calculations set theoretical limits on the performance of UEM systems and provide useful guides for photocathode design for high-brightness electron beam systems.

Development of a high average current rf linac thermionic injector

Thermionic electron guns are capable of operating at high average currents in a variety of vacuum electronic applications, including conventional microwave tubes, but have been replaced by laser photocathode injectors for most applications requiring high-brightness electron beams. However, while laser photocathode guns are capable of providing the very high-brightness beams, they provide an increased level of system complexity and do not extrapolate well to injectors for high average current applications requiring high beam quality. We are developing a 714 MHz injector based on a gridded thermionic electron gun for these applications. This paper presents an experimental study, computer simulations, and analysis of the performance of an existing gridded thermionic electron gun as an injector prototype, and a design concept for an improved injector configuration based on these results.

Generation of multi-charged high current ion beams using the SMIS 37 gas-dynamic electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source

A gas-dynamic ECR ion source (GaDIS) is distinguished by its ability to produce high current and high brightness beams of moderately charged ions. Contrary to a classical ECR ion source where the plasma confinement is determined by the slow electron scattering into an empty loss-cone, the higher density and lower electron temperature in a GaDIS plasma lead to an isotropic electron distribution with the confinement time determined by the prompt gas-dynamic flow losses. As a result, much higher ion fluxes are available; however a decrease in the confinement time of the GaDIS plasma lowers the ion charge state. The gas-dynamic ECR ion source concept has been successfully realized in the SMIS 37 experimental facility operated at the Institute of Applied Physics, Russia. The use of high-power (∼100kW) microwave (37.5GHz) radiation provides a dense plasma (∼1013cm−3) with a relatively low electron temperature (∼50–100eV) and allows for the generation of high current (∼1A/cm2) beams of multi-charged ions. In this work we report on the present status of the SMIS 37 ion source and discuss the advanced numerical modeling of ion beam extraction using the particle-in-cell code WARP.

The phase-controlled Raman effect.

Unlike spontaneous Raman effect, nonlinear Raman scattering generates fields with a well-defined phase, allowing Raman signals from individual scatterers to add up into a highly directional, high-brightness coherent beam. Here, we show that the phase of coherent Raman scattering can be accurately controlled and finely tuned by using spectrally and temporally tailored optical driver fields. In our experiments, performed with spectrally optimized phase-tunable laser pulses, such a phase control is visualized through the interference of the coherent Raman signal with the field resulting from nonresonant four-wave mixing. This interference gives rise to Fano-type profiles in the overall nonlinear response measured as a function of the delay time between the laser pulses, featuring a well-resolved destructive-interference dip on the dark side of the Raman peak. This phase-control strategy is shown to radically enhance the coherent response from weak Raman modes, thus helping confront long-standing challenges in nonlinear Raman imaging and microspectroscopy.

High-power low-divergence tapered quantum cascade lasers with plasmonic collimators

We demonstrate a tapered quantum cascade laser with sloped side-walls emitting a high-brightness single-lobe beam at 8.1 μm with a peak power of 4 W at room temperature. Using a combination of high and low reflectivity facet coatings, the power output is increased to 6.2 W while a high beam quality is maintained. Plasmonic collimators are fabricated on the facet of the uncoated lasers without compromising power output, demonstrating the viability of this beam-shaping strategy for high-power lasers. The collimated lasers emit a beam with a more circular cross-section, which is more amenable to high-efficiency coupling into mid-infrared optical fibers.

Application of Yb:KGd(WO4)2 crystals to lasers with high brightness beams

We report the experimental investigation of the thermo-optical effects that limit the brightness of radiation in the diode-end-pumped lasers with Ng- and Np-cut Yb:KGW anisotropic crystals. It is shown that the geometry of laser crystals and their relative positioning in relation to the directions of radiation propagation and polarization vector influence essentially the laser output power and beam quality at high pump power. By optimizing the crystal configuration we obtained the output power of 22 W in Q-switched mode and that of 17 W at regenerative amplification of chirped pulses with a beam quality of M2 < 1.1.

Single-Shot Coherent Diffraction Imaging of Microbunched Relativistic Electron Beams for Free-Electron Laser Applications

With the advent of coherent x rays provided by the x-ray free-electron laser (FEL), strong interest has been kindled in sophisticated diffraction imaging techniques. In this Letter, we exploit such techniques for the diagnosis of the density distribution of the intense electron beams typically utilized in an x-ray FEL itself. We have implemented this method by analyzing the far-field coherent transition radiation emitted by an inverse-FEL microbunched electron beam. This analysis utilizes an oversampling phase retrieval method on the transition radiation angular spectrum to reconstruct the transverse spatial distribution of the electron beam. This application of diffraction imaging represents a significant advance in electron beam physics, having critical applications to the diagnosis of high-brightness beams, as well as the collective microbunching instabilities afflicting these systems.

Multicore chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers for large mode area and mode shaping

Phase locking and mode shaping in multicore Ge20Sb15S65 chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers are proposed and demonstrated. By manipulating the geometrical structure of the fibers, a large mode area of 1962µm2 resulting from in-phase supermodes and equal amplitudes was obtained, which can significantly reduce the nonlinear damage in chalcogenide fibers in the infrared spectrum. With the coherent beam combining technology of multicore photonic crystal fibers, the far-field combining beam exhibits high brightness and high beam quality. Calculations show that with good phase locking and mode shaping, a seven-core photonic crystal fiber can achieve 49 times enhanced intensity compared with single-core fibers.

Magnetic field-free measurements of the total cross sections for positron–neon and positron–argon scattering

Magnetic field-free measurements of the total cross sections for positron–neon and positron–argon scattering have been performed using an electrostatic high-brightness slow positron beam apparatus.

Fabrication of metallic double-gate field emitter arrays and their electron beam collimation characteristics

The fabrication of double-gate metallic field emitter arrays with large collimation gate apertures and their field emission beam characteristics are reported. The device fabrication steps, including the molding technique for array fabrication, the electron extraction gate fabrication by the self-aligned resist etch-back method, and the fabrication of the collimation gate electrode using a focused ion beam assisted method are described in detail. The experimental results of 2 × 2 tip arrays with the proposed double-gate structure demonstrate an order of magnitude enhancement in beam brightness with minimal current loss. A similarly high beam brightness enhancement was achieved with a 20 × 20 tip array device, showing the scalability of the proposed structure. The observation of improved current-voltage characteristics with the 20 × 20 tip array is ascribed to the difference in gate aperture shape. The possibility of further improving the beam characteristics of double-gate field emitter arrays and the reduction of the transverse electron velocity spread are discussed.

Historical development and future trends of vacuum electronics

Vacuum electronics (VE) have dominated development and industrial growth in their application areas from the end of the 19th century to the end of 20th century. VE have contributed to basic concepts of physics and have enabled important basic inventions. Despite this bright past, in the meantime also a complete or partial replacement by new technologies such as solid-state electronics (SSE) occurred in several applications areas, triggered by the demand for new features and leading to new applications. Based on a review of the historical development of vacuum electronics from the basic inventions to the modern state of the art, the aim of this paper is to identify future trends and prospects of this field. The appearance of generic technology cycles, as in the case of radio-receiving tubes and cathode-ray display tubes, is discussed. Microwave tubes did experience only a partial replacement by solid-state devices and defended the high-power, high-frequency domain. The reason for their superiority in this domain is discussed. The development of the base technologies for VE, namely vacuum technology and electron source technology, is outlined, enabling further improvements. Besides the high-power, high-frequency domain of microwave tubes, VE technology applications with positive future prospects are addressed, e.g., space applications (long-lived microwave tubes, ion thrusters); thermionic energy converters; e-beam lithography; x-ray tubes; vacuum-based high-resolution characterization, and high-brightness beams for free electron lasers or particle accelerators. The continuous growth and increase in performance of solid-state electronics is shortly reviewed, SSE taking the lead with respect to total sales in the 1980s. Now, despite inherent advantages, solid-state electronics also seem to approach technical limitations. These include increasing energy consumption in conjunction with reduced long-term reliability when further scaling down. It is envisioned that vacuum nanoelectronics can help to overcome these limitations when scaling down feature sizes of integrated circuits below 22 nm.

Deep-ultraviolet picosecond flat-top pulses by chirp-matched sum frequency generation

Picosecond, flat-top, deep-UV pulses are needed to generate high-brightness electron beams to efficiently drive x-ray free electron lasers. Current metal photocathodes have low efficiency and therefore require high-energy pulses, and the generation of high-energy, flat-top pulses in the deep UV is still challenging. The low efficiencies of both the harmonic generation and deep-UV pulse shapers restrict the accessible pulse energy. Moreover, the acceptance bandwidth of the harmonic generation limits the minimum rise time of the flat-top profile. We present the generation of few-hundred microjoule, picosecond, deep-UV pulses using chirp-matched sum frequency generation. This scheme combined with IR spectral manipulation is a novel approach for deep-UV pulse shaping. It permits flat-top pulses with high energy and fast rise time, highly suited for high-brightness photoelectron beam production.

Non-intercepting diagnostic for high brightness electron beams using Optical Diffraction Radiation Interference (ODRI)

High-gain Free Electron Lasers and future Linear Colliders require development of modern electron linacs with high brightness beams. Conventional intercepting transverse electron beam diagnostics, e.g. based on Optical Transition Radiation (OTR), cannot tolerate such high power beams without remarkable mechanical damages on the diagnostics device. Optical Diffraction Radiation (ODR) is an excellent candidate for measurements of the transverse phase space parameters in a non-intercepting way. One of the main problems of this method is the low signal to noise ratio, mainly due to the unavoidable synchrotron radiation background. This problem can be overcome by using two slits on metallic foils, placed at a distance shorter than the radiation formation zone. In this case a nearly background-free ODR interference pattern is produced allowing the determination of the beam size and angular divergence. The accuracy on these parameters can be increased by exploiting both ODR polarization states, as well as different wavelengths. Here we report measurements of the ODR interference between two slits with different aperture sizes in a non-collinear geometry, carried out at FLASH (DESY, Germany). Our results demonstrate the unique potential of this technique to determine the beam parameters.

Vacuum electrospray of volatile liquids assisted by infrared laser irradiation

Current large cluster sources such as C(60) or argon utilize gas-phase sources which are of low-brightness and cannot be focused efficiently to better than 1 micron diameter spot size. The development of a high-brightness large cluster ion source is of critical importance to achieve high resolution in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) imaging of organics. We propose a new high-brightness large cluster ion source, and a technique for producing a stable electrospray of volatile liquids under vacuum. It is known that vacuum electrospray of volatile liquids such as water is extremely difficult because of freezing of the liquids introduced in vacuum by evaporative cooling. To avoid freezing, the tip of the electrospray emitter was irradiated by a continuous wave infrared laser. Without continuous laser irradiation the vacuum electrospray of a water/methanol solution was unstable with respect to the shapes of the Taylor cone and current, whereas continuous laser irradiation produced a stable electrospray of water. The typical modes of electrospray were clearly observed with an optical microscope even under vacuum conditions. A stable vacuum electrospray could be achieved by improving the vacuum pressure to suppress electric discharge and by using the laser to maintain the liquid state. This is the first description of the production of a stable vacuum electrospray of volatile liquids such as water. This vacuum electrospray technique can be expected to produce a novel high-brightness large cluster ion beam source.

An X-ray Free-Electron Laser Oscillator for Record High Spectral Purity, Brightness, and Stability

Free-electron lasers for hard X-rays can be constructed in the oscillator configuration by employing diamond crystals as X-ray mirrors. An X-ray FEL oscillator (XFELO) will produce highly stable X-ray beams of ultra-high spectral purity and high average brightness, offering scientific opportunities in areas not covered by high-gain devices. An XFELO combined with a high-gain amplifier, possibly with harmonic generation, would constitute an ultimate X-ray machine.