Radio-frequency Gun Research Articles

Iterative Learning Control for the Radio Frequency Subsystems of a Free-Electron Laser

In linear particle accelerators used for free-electron lasers, it is often required that the electron bunches experience the same electric field as they pass through the accelerating structures. For radio frequency (RF) pulsed mode machines, like the SwissFEL, this means that the amplitude and phase of the RF pulses feeding the structures through the waveguides should be kept constant over the pulselength. This raises an interesting problem that can be addressed by an iterative learning control (ILC) technique. This method manipulates the input waveforms iteratively, in order to generate flat amplitude and phase pulses at the output of the system. In this paper, we introduce two ILC algorithms, one with a model and one without, which have been tested on three different high-power RF subsystems, namely, the klystron, pulse compressor, and RF Gun.

Design of compact ultrafast microscopes for single- and multi-shot imaging with MeV electrons

Ultrafast high-energy electron microscopy, taking advantage of strong interaction of electrons with matter while minimizing space charge problems, can be used to address a wide range of grand challenges in basics energy sciences. However, MeV-electron lenses are inherently bulky and expensive, preventing them from acceptance in a broad scientific community. In this article, we report our novel design of a compact, low-cost imaging-lens system for MeV-electrons based on quadrupole multiplets, including triplet, quadruplet and quintuplet, both symmetric and asymmetric. We compare optical performance of quadrupole-based condenser, objective and projector lenses with that of the traditional round-lenses and discuss the strategy for their practical use in constructing MeV-electron microscopes for high spatial and temporal resolution single- and multi-shot imaging. Combining the compound electron-optical system with a photocathode radiofrequency (RF) gun, such a MeV electron microscope can be fit into a small-sized laboratory for ultrafast observations and measurements.

Ultrafast electron microscopy with relativistic femtosecond electron pulses.

Ultrafast electron microscopy (UEM) with femtosecond temporal resolution is a 'dream machine' that has been long envisioned for the study of ultrafast structural dynamics in materials. For this purpose, we developed a prototype UEM with relativistic femtosecond electron pulses generated by a radio-frequency acceleration-based photoemission gun. TEM images of polystyrene latex particles and gold nanoparticles were observed using approximately 100-fs-long electron pulses with energies of 3.1 MeV. The effect of emittance and the number of pulses on the images were investigated. We demonstrated single-shot imaging with the femtosecond electron pulse at low magnification of approximately 500×.

Analytical model and simulation of the Schottky effect on a cryo-cooled bialkali photocathode

A bialkali photocathode with the quantum efficiency (QE) in the range of a few percent was fabricated for the 704 MHz SRF gun at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The photoemission properties of the bialkali photocathode in the superconducting radio frequency (SRF) gun were measured for the first time, and a good beam experiment result was obtained. The performance of the bialkali photocathode was investigated during the commissioning process of the 704 MHz SRF gun. The effect of electric field on the QE of the cryo-cooled cathode was characterized by an analytical model and a code for the first time.

Initial beam dynamics simulations of a high-average-current field-emission electron source in a superconducting radiofrequency gun

High-power electron beams are sought-after tools in support to a wide array of societal applications. This paper explores the production of high-power electron beams by combining a high-current field-emission electron source to a superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavity. We especially carry out beam-dynamics simulations that demonstrate the viability of the scheme to form ∼300 kW average-power electron beam using a 1+1/2-cell SRF gun.

Research and development of iridium cerium photocathode for SuperKEKB injector linac

We present the results of our investigation on iridium cerium compound as a photocathode material for the SuperKEKB photoinjector. A large-size iridium cerium compound with excellent machinability was obtained by a two-stage production method combining cold crucible induction melting and spark plasma sintering, and its usability as photocathode material was verified. The quantum efficiency (QE) of the non-activated sample was measured with 266 nm laser pulses to be 2.12 × 10−6. The QE of the cleaned sample was found to be 1.49 × 10−4, exhibiting an improvement by a factor ~ 70. The high resistance to poisoning against oxidization and carbonization of iridium cerium compound leads to useful properties, such as the compound being easily activate by laser cleaning and its reasonably high QE being maintained under non-ultra-high vacuum conditions. These significant advantages of the iridium cerium photocathode allow for the generation of high-charge electron beams with a bunch charge of 4.8 nC, when used with an advanced radio-frequency (rf) gun in the SuperKEKB injector linac. The QE of iridium cerium compound which was mounted in the rf gun was found to stay within the range of (8 ~ 10) × 10−5 for a year and a half without cathode maintenance such as laser cleaning.

Pulsed laser deposition of yttrium photocathode suitable for use in radio-frequency guns

Yttrium (Y) thin film was grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on a copper (Cu) polycrystalline substrate. Ex situ morphological and structural characterisations of the circular Y film of 1.2 µm thickness and 3 mm diameter have shown a very low droplet density on the film surface and a crystalline feature with a preferred orientation along the Y (100) plane. Moreover, Y thin film resulted in being very adherent to the Cu substrate and more scratch resistant than Cu bulk. A twin thin film was deposited also on a Cu backflange of a radio-frequency (RF) gun to test the suitability of the metallic thin film as photocathode. It was observed that the Y-coated photocathode was characterised by a quantum efficiency (QE) higher than that of the Cu bulk photocathode even if the presence of space charge effects didn’t allow deriving the absolute maximum value of QE of Y photocathode.

Beam Dynamics Simulation of Photocathode RF Electron Gun at the PBP-CMU Linac Laboratory

Photocathode radio-frequency (RF) electron guns are widely used at many particle accelerator laboratories due to high quality of produced electron beams. By using a short-pulse laser to induce the photoemission process, the electrons are emitted with low energy spread. Moreover, the photocathode RF guns are not suffered from the electron back bombardment effect, which can cause the limited electron current and accelerated energy. In this research, we aim to develop the photocathode RF gun for the linac-based THz radiation source. Its design is based on the existing gun at the PBP-CMU Linac Laboratory. The gun consists of a one and a half cell S-band standing-wave RF cavities with a maximum electric field of about 60 MV/m at the centre of the full cell. We study the beam dynamics of electrons traveling through the electromagnetic field inside the RF gun by using the particle tracking program ASTRA. The laser properties i.e. transverse size and injecting phase are optimized to obtain low transverse emittance. In addition, the solenoid magnet is applied for beam focusing and emittance compensation. The proper solenoid magnetic field is then investigated to find the optimum value for proper emittance conservation condition.

Low-emittance thermionic-gun-based injector for a compact free-electron laser

A low-emittance thermionic-gun-based injector was developed for the x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) facility known as the SPring-8 angstrom compact free-electron laser (SACLA). The thermionic-gun-based system has the advantages of maintainability, reliability, and stability over a photocathode radio-frequency (rf) gun because of its robust thermionic cathode. The basic performance of the injector prototype was confirmed at the SPring-8 compact self-amplified spontaneous emission source (SCSS) test accelerator, where stable FEL generation in an extreme ultraviolet wavelength range was demonstrated. The essential XFEL innovation is the achievement of a constant beam peak current of 3--4 kA, which is 10 times higher than that generated by the SCSS test accelerator, while maintaining a normalized-slice emittance below 1 mm mrad. Thus, the following five modifications were applied to the SACLA injector: (i) a nonlinear energy chirp correction; (ii) the optimization of the rf acceleration frequency; (iii) rf system stabilization; (iv) nondestructive beam monitoring; and (v) a geomagnetic field correction. The SACLA injector successfully achieved the target beam performance, which shows that a thermionic-gun-based injector is applicable to an XFEL accelerator system. This paper gives an overview of the SACLA injector and describes the physical and technical details, together with the electron beam performance obtained in the beam commissioning.

Properties of quarter-wavelength coaxial cavity for triode-type thermionic RF gun

A quarter-wavelength coaxial cavity with a longitudinal radio-frequency power supply was fabricated and tested. The cavity was designed as a pre-buncher for a thermionic triode-type radio-frequency gun of a mid-infrared free electron laser facility. The triode structure was formed to ensure the reduction of the back-bombarding effect, which usually appears in thermionic radio-frequency guns. The coaxial cavity was tested using a tungsten dispenser cathode. From the results of the cold test, a cavity voltage of about 25 kV can be attained, which corresponds to designed characteristics. In contrast, the hot test showed a sudden drop in voltage, resulting in an unstable operation. The small dimensions of the cavity caused some low-field effects, which led to multipactoring. In this paper, we report the tested characteristics of the pre-bunching cavity.

Charge production studies from [formula omitted] photocathodes in a normal conducting RF gun

This work discusses the behavior of electron bunch charge produced in an L-band normal conducting radio frequency gun from Cs2Te photocathodes illuminated with ps-long UV laser pulses and presumed homogeneous flattop laser transverse distribution. The measured charge shows the expected linear dependence in the quantum efficiency limited emission regime at low laser pulse energies. At higher laser pulse energy, the measured charge in the space charge limited emission regime should saturate, assuming an ideal homogeneous flattop laser transverse distribution. However, this behavior is not observed experimentally. Instead of saturating, the measured charge continues to increase with laser pulse energy, albeit with much weaker dependence than in the quantum efficiency limited emission regime. Simulations with the space charge particle tracking code ASTRA show that the charge saturates as expected using a homogeneous flattop laser transverse distribution. The discrepancy between simulations and measured excess charge may be attributed to the presence of unintentional Gaussian-like decaying radial halo beyond the core of the otherwise presumed homogeneous flattop core. The rate of increase of the measured charge at high laser pulse energies seems to be proportional to the amount of halo despite charge saturation in the core of the transverse laser radial profile. By utilizing core + halo particle distributions based on measured radial laser profiles, ASTRA simulations and semi-analytical emission models reproduce the behavior of the measured charge for a wide range of RF gun and laser operational parameters within the measurement uncertainties.

Growth of lead thin films on silicon and niobium substrates by sputtering technique

In this paper, the authors report the growth of Pb thin films on both Si and Nb substrates by radio-frequency sputtering technique. Deposited films were characterized and tested to deduce the structure, the morphology, the nanomechanical properties, and also the quantum efficiency. Granular structures and large presence of voids were observed by scanning electron microscopy; moreover, the roughness and grain size of the film surface, investigated by surface probe microscopy, increased with the film thickness. Crystallographic orientation, studied by x-ray diffraction, showed the growth of polycrystalline Pb thin films and the presence of weak diffraction peaks related to penta-lead oxide (Pb5O8). The nanomechanical analysis reveals a film hardness with a value (∼1.5 GPa) well beyond the hardness of Pb bulk (0.04 GPa). Finally, twin Pb thin films deposited on Nb substrates were tested as photocathodes showing its great potentiality to be used in superconducting radio-frequency guns with a quantum efficiency of 5 × 10−5.

Thermocathode radio-frequency gun for the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics free-electron laser

A radio-frequency (RF) gun for a race-track microtron-recuperator injector driving the free-electron laser (FEL) (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics) is being tested at a special stand. Electron bunches of the RF gun have an energy of up to 300 keV and a repetition rate of up to 90 MHz. The average electro-beam current can reach 100 mA in the continuous operation regime. The advantages of the new injector are as follows: long lifetime of the cathode for high average beam current; simple scheme of longitudinal beam bunching, which does not require an additional bunching resonator in the injector; absence of dark-current contamination of the injector beam; and comfortable RF gun operation due to the absence of a high potential of 300 kV at the cathode control circuits. In this study we describe the RF gun design, present the main characteristics of the injector with the RF gun, and give the results of testing.

Surface-plasmon enhanced photoemission of a silver nano-patterned photocathode

Nano-patterned photocathodes (NPC) take advantage of plasmonic effects to resonantly increase absorption of light and localize electromagnetic field intensity on metal surfaces leading to surface-plasmon enhanced photoemission. In this paper, we report the status of NPC research at UCLA including in particular the optimization of the dimensions of a nanohole array on a silver wafer to enhance plasmonic response at 800nm light, the development of a spectrally-resolved reflectivity measurement setup for quick nanopattern validation, and of a novel cathode plug to enable high power tests of NPCs on single crystal substrates in a high gradient radiofrequency gun.

Tight comparison of Mg and Y thin film photocathodes obtained by the pulsed laser deposition technique

In this work Magnesium (Mg) and Yttrium (Y) thin films have been deposited on Copper (Cu) polycrystalline substrates by the pulsed laser ablation technique for photocathode application. Such metallic materials are studied for their interesting photoemission properties and are proposed as a good alternative to the Cu photocathode, which is generally used in radio-frequency guns. Mg and Y films were uniform with no substantial differences in morphology; a polycrystalline structure was found for both of them. Photoemission measurements of such cathodes based on thin films were performed, revealing a quantum efficiency higher than Cu bulk. Photoemission theory according to the three-step model of Spicer is invoked to explain the superior photoemission performance of Mg with respect to Y.

Numerical simulations of early-stage dynamics of electron bunches emitted from plasmonic photocathodes

High-brightness electron sources are a key ingredient to the development of compact accelerator-based light sources. The electron sources are commonly based on (linear) photoemission process where a laser pulse with proper wavelength impinges on the surface of a metallic or semiconductor photocathode. Very recently, the use of plasmonic cathodes – cathodes with a nano-patterned surface – have demonstrated great enhancement in quantum efficiencies (Li et al., 2013 [1]). Alternatively, this type of photocathodes could support the formation of structured beams composed of transversely-separated beamlets. In this paper we discuss numerical simulations of the early-stage beam dynamics of the emission process from plasmonic cathodes carried out using the Warp (Friedman et al., 2014 [2]) framework. The model is used to investigate the properties of beams emitted from these photocathode and subsequently combined with particle-in-cell simulations to explore the imaging of cathode pattern after acceleration in a radiofrequency gun.

Beam Dynamics Investigation for the Compact Seeded THz-FEL Amplifier

A compact seeded terahertz (THz) free-electron laser (FEL) amplifier is under development at the Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University. The system consists of a 1.6-cell S-band BNL-type photocathode radio frequency (RF) gun, a focusing solenoid magnet, a magnetic bunch compressor, focusing quadrupoles, a short planar undulator and a THz parametric generator for seeding. The accelerator system will generate a high brightness ultra-short electron bunch injected to the short undulator. Since characteristics of the emitted radiation strongly depend on the electron beam properties, the beam dynamics of the system has been investigated. As the result, the system should be operated at the high accelerating voltage of 80 MV/m to avoid the space-charge effect which causes serious bunch lengthening. The laser with the uniform temporal distribution and the injection phase of 12 degree is suitable for the bunch compression in the chicane. This condition provides the electron beam injected to the undulator with the peak current of more than 300 A and the FWHM bunch length of 0.36 ps at the bunch charge of 200 pC.

Tunable High-Intensity Electron Bunch Train Production Based on Nonlinear Longitudinal Space Charge Oscillation.

High-intensity trains of electron bunches with tunable picosecond spacing are produced and measured experimentally with the goal of generating terahertz (THz) radiation. By imposing an initial density modulation on a relativistic electron beam and controlling the charge density over the beam propagation, density spikes of several-hundred-ampere peak current in the temporal profile, which are several times higher than the initial amplitudes, have been observed for the first time. We also demonstrate that the periodic spacing of the bunch train can be varied continuously either by tuning launching phase of a radio-frequency gun or by tuning the compression of a downstream magnetic chicane. Narrow-band coherent THz radiation from the bunch train was also measured with μJ-level energies and tunable central frequency of the spectrum in the range of ∼0.5 to 1.6THz. Our results pave the way towards generating mJ-level narrow-band coherent THz radiation and driving high-gradient wakefield-based acceleration.

Design of a high-flux instrument for ultrafast electron diffraction and microscopy

We present the design and optimization of a new instrument for ultrafast electron diffraction and imaging. The proposed instrument merges the high peak current and relativistic electron energies of radio-frequency guns, with the high average electron flux of static electron microscopes, extending the beam parameter space achievable with relativistic electrons by many orders of magnitude. An immediate consequence of this work is a broader range of accessible science by using electron probes, enabling techniques as femtosecond nano-diffraction and coherent diffraction imaging, and paving the way to direct observation of ultrafast dynamics in complex and isolated samples, from nanocrystals, to nano/micro droplets and organic molecules.

Deposition of Y thin films by nanosecond UV pulsed laser ablation for photocathode application

In this work, yttrium (Y) thin films have been deposited on Si (100) substrates by the pulsed laser deposition technique. Ex-situ morphological, structural and optical characterisations of such films have been performed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, atomic force microscopy and ellipsometry. Polycrystalline films with a thickness of 1.2μm, homogenous with a root mean square roughness of about 2nm, were obtained by optimised laser irradiation conditions. Despite the relatively high thickness, the films resulted very adherent to the substrates. The high quality of such thin films is important to the synthesis of metallic photocathodes based on Y thin film, which could be used as electron sources of high photoemission performance in radio-frequency guns.