FEL Performance Research Articles

Effect of SCU long range errors on the FEL performance

The FEL performance strongly correlates with the undulator field quality. The definition of mechanical tolerances for the undulator magnets allows us to achieve the wished field quality. These mechanical tolerances should be defined both on short and long-range errors. With long-range errors, we address problems like deformations of the yoke caused by the support structures or unwanted tapering, which can arise in the positioning procedure of the ideally parallel undulator coils. In this contribution, we quantify the effect and set tolerances of a few types of long-range errors on the FEL radiation generated specifically from superconducting undulator coils.

Start-to-end simulations for bunch compressor and THz SASE FEL at PITZ

The magnetic bunch compressor was designed as part of a THz accelerator source being developed at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY in Zeuthen (PITZ) as a prototype for pump-probe experiments at the European XFEL. As an electron bunch is compressed to achieve higher bunch currents for the THz source, the beam dynamics in the bunch compressor was studied by numerical simulations. A start-to-end simulation optimizer including coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) effects has been developed by combining the use of ASTRA, OCELOT, and GENESIS to support the design of the THz source prototype. In this paper, we present simulation results to explore the possibility of improving the performance of the THz FEL at PITZ by using the developed bunch compressor.

Virtual commissioning of the European XFEL for advanced user experiments at photon energies beyond 25 keV using low-emittance electron beams

Growing interests in ultra-hard X-rays are pushing forward the frontier of commissioning the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) for routine operation towards the sub-ångström regime, where a photon energy of 25 keV (0.5 Å) and above is desired. Such X-rays allow for larger penetration depths and enable the investigation of materials in highly absorbing environments. Delivering the requested X-rays to user experiments is of crucial importance for the XFEL development. Unique capabilities of the European XFEL are formed by combining a high energy linac and the long variable-gap undulator systems for generating intense X-rays at 25 keV and pushing the limit even further to 30 keV. However, the FEL performance relies on achievable electron bunch qualities. Low-emittance electron bunch production, and the associated start-to-end modelling of beam physics thus becomes a prerequisite to dig into the XFEL potentials. Here, we present the obtained simulation results from a virtual commissioning of the XFEL for the user experiments at 25 keV and beyond, including the optimized electron bunch qualities and corresponding FEL lasing performance. Experimental results at 30 keV from the first test run are presented.

High brilliance Free-Electron Laser Oscillator operating at multi-MegaHertz repetition rate in the short-TeraHertz emission range

We present the design study of an innovative scheme to generate high repetition rate (multi-MHz-class) THz radiation pulses by using an Energy Recovered Super Conducting Linac operating in Continuous Wave mode driving a Free-Electron Laser Oscillator. The FEL performance is illustrated for one and two color operation. Start-to-end simulations are presented to assess the capability of this scheme for typical values of wavelengths of interest in the 10–50μm (6–30 THz) range.

Optimization and stability analysis of the cascaded EEHG-HGHG free-electron laser

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) are powerful tools to explore and study nature for achieving remarkable advances. Generally, seeded FELs are ideal sources for supplying fully coherent soft x-ray pulses. Benefiting from the high-frequency up-conversion efficiency, the cascading configuration with echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG) and high-gain harmonic generation (HGHG) holds promising prospects for generating fully coherent radiation at 1 nm wavelength. In this paper, we design and optimize EEHG-HGHG configuration using parameters of Shanghai High-Repetition-Rate XFEL and Extreme Light Facility. In addition, we systematically analyze the effect of relative timing jitter on the output FEL performance based on various start-to-end electron beams. The intensive numerical simulations show that the cascaded EEHG-HGHG scheme can achieve 1 nm FEL pulses with peak power up to 15 GW. Further sensitivity analysis indicates that the relative timing jitter between the electron beam and seed laser has a significant impact on the FEL performance. The RMS timing jitter of 3 fs can lead to the final output pulse energy fluctuations of 29%.

Perspectives towards Sub-Ångström Working Regime of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser with Low-Emittance Electron Beams

Sub-ångström working regime refers to a working state of free-electron lasers which allows the generation of hard X-rays at a photon wavelength of 1 ångström and below, that is, a photon energy of 12.5 keV and above. It is demonstrated that the accelerators of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser can provide highly energetic electron beams of up to 17.5 GeV. Along with long variable-gap undulators, the facility offers superior conditions for exploring self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) in the sub-ångström regime. However, the overall FEL performance relies quantitatively on achievable electron beam qualities through a kilometers-long accelerator beamline. Low-emittance electron beam production and the associated start-to-end beam physics thus becomes a prerequisite to dig in the potentials of SASE performance towards higher photon energies. In this article, we present the obtained results on electron beam qualities produced with different accelerating gradients of 40 MV/m–56 MV/m at the cathode, as well as the final beam qualities in front of the undulators via start-to-end simulations considering realistic conditions. SASE studies in the sub-ångström regime, using optimized electron beams, are carried out at varied energy levels according to the present state of the facility, that is, a pulsed mode operating with a 10 Hz-repetition 0.65 ms-long bunch train energized to 14 GeV and 17.5 GeV. Millijoule-level SASE intensity is obtained at a photon energy of 25 keV at 14 GeV electron beam energy using a gain length of about 7 m. At 17.5 GeV, half-millijoule lasing is achieved at 40 keV. Lasing at up to 50 keV is demonstrated with pulse energies in the range of a few hundreds and tens of microjoules with existing undulators and currently achievable electron beam qualities.

Measurement of undulator section wakefield at the SXFEL test facility

In free electron laser facilities, almost every kind of device will generate wakefield when an electron beam passes through it. Most of the wakefields are undesired and have a negative effect on the electron beam, which means a decrease of FEL performance. As for the SXFEL test facility, the sophisticated layout and the cumulative effect of such a long undulator section lead to an obvious wakefield, which is strong enough that cannot be ignored. Based on two deflecting cavities at the entrance and the exit of the undulator section with corresponding profile monitors, we measured the wakefield of the undulator section. In this paper, we give the theoretical and simulation results of resistive wall wakefields which agrees well with each other. In addition, the experimental and the simulation results of the overall undulator wakefield are given showing small difference. In order to explore the impact of this wakefield on FEL lasing, we give the simulation results of FEL with and without wakefield for comparison. There is almost no impact on 44 nm FEL in stage-1 of cascaded EEHG–HGHG mode, while the impact on 8.8 nm FEL in stage-2 becomes critical and it decreases the pulse energy and peak power by 42% and 27% and broadens the bandwidth.

Cavity tilt measurement using beam excited higher order mode signals at the Free Electron Laser FLASH

At the Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH), TESLA-type superconducting (SC) cavities are used for the acceleration of electron bunches. Higher Order Modes (HOMs) excited by electron bunches may cause emittance growth and decrease the FEL performance. The misalignment of the SC cavities housed inside cryo-modules is one of the main factors which enhance the coupling of HOMs to the bunches. We consider the cavity offset and tilt as the two most relevant misalignments. These can be measured by utilizing the beam excited HOM signals. The cavity offset has been measured before in several modules at FLASH, while the tilt has so far proved to be much more difficult to be measured. This is because the beam trajectory tilt excited modes are much weaker than the ones excited by offset. We used a method for measuring cavity tilt by carefully targeting the beam through the middle of a cavity. An efficient data processing routine based on signal fitting was applied. For the first time, the tilts of all cavities inside a cryo-module are measured. The ratio between the offset and angle dependence of the HOMs agrees well among the different cavities.

Analysis of harmonic generation in planar and elliptic bi-harmonic undulators and FELs

Abstract We present a phenomenological model for single-pass FEL radiation power and bunching evolution in planar and elliptic undulators with two polarizations of the emitted radiation; the models allows for the suppression of low harmonics in the spectrum. We study the harmonic generation in some planar and elliptic undulators with account for the off-axis effects and for the 3rd harmonics of the undulator magnetic field. Both spontaneous and stimulated types of radiation are studied. Spontaneous UR is studied with generalized Bessel functions formalism. The analytical FEL model, which employs these Bessel functions, is verified with FEL experiments in the range of radiation wavelengths 0.15–500 nm and confirmed by numerical simulations. The phenomenological description is based on the undulator parameters and FEL parameters, such as the electron beam current, energy, spread and emittance. The analytical formulation allows fast evaluation of the FEL performance with minimal resources. The effects of the 3rd harmonic of the undulator field and properties of the beam on the spontaneous UR and on the FEL radiation are explored. Generation of high even- and odd- harmonics due to the undulator field harmonic and finite beam size is studied. Their effects on the spontaneous and stimulated UR are compared with each other.

Progress on the multi bunch FEL performance at FLASH

At the SASE-FEL user facility FLASH, superconducting TESLA-type cavities are used for acceleration. The high achievable duty cycle allows for operating with long bunch-trains, hence considerably increasing the efficiency of the machine. However, RF induced intra-bunch-train trajectory variations were found to be responsible for significant variations of the SASE intensity within one bunch train. This work presents the latest achievements in improving the multi-bunch FEL performance by reducing the intra-bunch-train variation of RF parameters. Particular attention is given to the static and dynamic detuning of the cavities. It will be shown that the current level of LLRF control is suitable to limit the variation of RF parameters considerably.

FEL Performance Achieved at European XFEL

FEL Performance Achieved at European XFEL

Brightness analysis of an electron beam with a complex profile

We propose a novel analysis method to obtain the core bright part of an electron beam with a complex phase-space profile. This method is beneficial to evaluate the performance of simulation data of a linear accelerator (linac), such as an x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) machine, since the phase-space distribution of a linac electron beam is not simple, compared to a Gaussian beam in a synchrotron. In this analysis, the brightness of undulator radiation is calculated and the core of an electron beam is determined by maximizing the brightness. We successfully extracted core electrons from a complex beam profile of XFEL simulation data, which was not expressed by a set of slice parameters. FEL simulations showed that the FEL intensity was well remained even after extracting the core part. Consequently, the FEL performance can be estimated by this analysis without time-consuming FEL simulations.

High-quality GeV-scale electron bunches with the Resonant Multi-Pulse Ionization Injection

Recently a new injection scheme for Laser Wake Field Acceleration, employing a single 100-TW-class laser system, has been proposed. In the Resonant Multi-Pulse Ionization injection (ReMPI) a resonant train of pulses drives a large amplitude plasma wave that traps electrons extracted from the plasma by further ionization of a high-Z dopant (Argon in the present paper). While the pulses of the driver train have intensity below the threshold for the dopant’s ionization, the properly delayed and frequency doubled (or more) ionization pulse possesses an electric field large enough to extract electrons, though its normalized amplitude is well below unity. In this paper we will report on numerical simulations results aimed at the generation of GeV-scale bunches with normalized emittance and rms energy below 80nm×rad and 0.5%, respectively. Analytical consideration of the FEL performance for a 1.3 GeV bunch will be also reported.

First operation of a harmonic lasing self-seeded free electron laser

Harmonic lasing is a perspective mode of operation of X-ray FEL user facilities that allows to provide brilliant beams of higher energy photons for user experiments. Another useful application of harmonic lasing is so called Harmonic Lasing Self-Seeded Free Electron Laser (HLSS FEL) that allows to improve spectral brightness of these facilities. In the past, harmonic lasing has been demonstrated in the FEL oscillators in infrared and visible wavelength ranges, but not in high-gain FELs and not at short wavelengths. In this paper we report on the first evidence of the harmonic lasing and the first operation of the HLSS FEL at the soft X-ray FEL user facility FLASH in the wavelength range between 4.5 nm and 15 nm. Spectral brightness was improved in comparison with Self-Amplified Spontaneous emission (SASE) FEL by a factor of six in the exponential gain regime. A better performance of HLSS FEL with respect to SASE FEL in the post-saturation regime with a tapered undulator was observed as well. The first demonstration of harmonic lasing in a high-gain FEL and at short wavelengths paves the way for a variety of applications of this new operation mode in X-ray FELs.

A single stage EEHG at SXFEL for narrow-bandwidth soft X-ray generation

The echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG) scheme holds promising prospects for efficiently generating intense coherent radiation at very high harmonics of the initial seed laser. In this paper, we study the feasibility of operating the Shanghai X-ray free-electron laser test facility with a single stage EEHG setup. With a combination of existing numerical codes, start-to-end simulations considering various three-dimensional effects have been carried out to show the possible performance of the EEHG FEL. Simulation results demonstrate that a single stage EEHG can generate high power soft X-ray radiation pulses with narrow bandwidth directly from UV seed lasers. With the help of the harmonic lasing technique or upgraded linac, we also show the possibility of generating coherent soft X-ray radiation in the “water window” with a single stage EEHG.

Coherent electron beam density modulator for driving X-ray free electron lasers

We propose a new compact scheme for a Free Electron Laser with more coherent properties for the X-ray beam. Higher FEL performance would be achieved using a train of electron bunches initially accelerated in a linear accelerator. Similar to the RF klystron concept, we propose developing an X-ray FEL which consists of two parts: an X-ray self-seeding electron beam density modulator and an output set of undulators. A density modulator consists of a low-Q X-ray cavity and an undulator, which is placed between the cavity mirrors. We use this undulator as a very high gain amplifier, which compensates the amplitude loss due to monochromatic X-ray reflections from the mirrors. Following the X-ray cavity, the density modulated electron beam is separated from the X-ray beam and then enters the output set of undulators. The frequency spectrum of the final X-ray beam is determined mainly by the bandwidth of the reflected elements in the X-ray cavity.

Enhanced high gain harmonic generation scheme with negative dispersion

The enhanced high gain harmonic generation (EHGHG) scheme has been proposed and shown to be able to significantly enhance the performance of HGHG FEL. In this paper we investigate the EHGHG scheme with negative dispersion. The bunching factor at the entrance of the radiator is analyzed, which indicates that the scheme with negative dispersion can further weaken the negative effect of the dispersive strength on the energy spread correction factor. The numerical results from GENESIS (3D-code) are presented, and are in good agreement with our analysis. Then we comparatively study the effects of the initial beam energy spread and the relative phase shift on the radiation power. The results show that the EHGHG scheme with negative dispersion has a larger tolerance on the initial beam energy spread and a nearly equal wide good region of the relative phase shift compared with the case of positive dispersion.

Numerical study of focusing lattice impact on the saturation length and power in SASE FEL

An adjustment of the electron and photon beams angular and transverse phase-space characteristics along the undulator line and the resonant interaction of the electron beam with co-propagating radiation are of basic conditions to drive the SASE-FEL process. In the real facility the SASE-FEL process can degrade due to electron beam orbit distortion caused by quadrupole misalignments in undulator section. Both those issues are in dependence of the focusing lattice arrangement in undulator section. In this paper the comparative study of the SASE-FEL process for conventional FODO focusing lattices, the undulator section arrangement with central focusing lattice and the FEL performance without external focusing system are presented. The impact of the quadrupole misalignments on the radiation saturation length and power for different focusing systems is analyzed. The numerical simulations for European XFEL project are given.

Beam dynamics optimisation of an X-band Linac driven soft X-ray FEL

Abstract Several new light source projects aim at producing X-ray photons with high repetition rate (1 kHz or above). Cost and size considerations have recently stirred new interest in solutions based on X-band RF systems. We developed a conceptual design for a soft X-ray FEL driven by X-band structures operating at high repetition rate and we present here the results of the start-to-end simulations from the gun to the end of the undulators and the corresponding optimisation of the FEL performance at 1 keV photon energy.

Free electron lasers: Present status and future challenges

With the scientific successes of the soft X-ray FLASH facility in Germany and the recent spectacular commissioning of the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC, free electron lasers are poised to take center stage as the premier source of tunable, intense, coherent photons of either ultra-short time resolution or ultra-fine spectral resolution, from the far infrared to the hard X-ray regime. This paper examines the state of the art in FEL performance and the underlying enabling technologies. It evaluates the state of readiness of the three basic machine architectures—SASE FELs, seeded FELs, and FEL oscillators—for the major X-ray science user facilities on the 5–10 years time scale and examines the challenges that lie ahead for FELs to achieve their full potential throughout the entire spectral range. In soft and hard X-rays, high longitudinal coherence, in addition to full transverse coherence, will be the key performance upgrade; ideas using laser-based or self-seeding or oscillators can be expected to be qualitatively superior to today's SASE sources. Short pulses, from femtoseconds to attoseconds, can be realistically envisioned. With high repetition rate electron sources coupled to superconducting radiofrequency linear accelerators, unprecedented average beam brightness will be possible and many users would be served simultaneously by a single accelerator complex.