SLAC, Menlo Park, California, USA
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) produces typically SASE FEL pulses with an intensity of up to 5 mJ and at high photon energy a spread of 0.2% (FWHM). Self seeding with a diamond crystal reduces the energy spread by a factor of 10 to 40. The range depends on which Bragg reflection is used, or the special setup of the electron beam like over-compression. The peak intensity level is lower by a factor of about five, giving the seeded beam an advantage of about 2.5 in average intensity over the use of a monochromator with SASE. Some experiments want to scan the photon energy, which requires that the crystal angle be carefully tracked. At certain energies and crystal angles different lines are crossing which allows seeding at two or even three different colors inside the bandwidth of the SASE pulse. Out-off plane lines come in pairs, like [1 -1 1] and [-1 1 1], which can be split by using the yaw angle adjustments of the crystal, allowing a two-color seeding for all energies above 4.83 keV.
SLAC, Menlo Park, California, USA
Running the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) with self-seeded photon beams requires better electron beam stability, especially in energy, to reduce the otherwise huge intensity variations of more than 100%. Code was written to identify and quantify the different jitter sources. Some improvements are being addressed, especially the stability of the modulator high voltage of some critical RF stations. Special setups like running the beam off crest in the last part of the linac can also be used to reduce the energy jitter. Even a slight dependence on the transverse position was observed. The intensity jitter distribution of a seeded beam is still more contained with peaks up too twice the average intensity, compared to the jitter distribution of a SASE beam going through a monochromator, which can have damaging spikes up to 5 times the average intensity.
SLAC, Menlo Park, California, USA
The success of the hard X-ray self-seeding experiment at the LCLS is very important in that it provided narrow, nearly transform-limited bandwidth from the FEL, fulfilling a beam quality requirement for experimental applications requiring highly monochromatic X-rays. Yet, because the HXRSS signal is generated random spikes of noise, it is not a truly continuous monochromatic seed signal and even higher FEL performance would be achieved using a continuous seed source. We propose developing such a source using an X-ray cavity to achieve a continuous, narrow band X-ray seed signal. This cavity consists of four crystals with corresponding Bragg angles of about 45 degrees for each. We will analyze and the interaction of X-rays and electron beams with this cavity. This source uses a train of electron bunches initially accelerated in a linear accelerator which then pass through a radiator element situated within an X-ray cavity. The number of bunches is proportional to the achievable Q-value of the X-ray cavity and may be in the range of 10-100. We do not need a high output power of X-ray beams, which leads to relaxed electron beam requirements. We will consider several options.
SLAC, Menlo Park, California, USA
LBNL, Berkeley, California, USA
LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
The Linac Coherent Light Source is an X-ray free-electron laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It produces coherent soft and hard X-rays with peak brightness nearly ten orders of magnitude beyond conventional synchrotron sources and a range of pulse durations from 500 to <10 fs. The facility has been operating at X-ray energy from 500 to 10,000eV. Users have expressed great interest in doing experiments with X-Rays near the carbon absorption edge at 284eV. We describe the operation and performance of the LCLS in the newly established regime between 250 and 500eV.
[1] Emma, P. et al., “First lasing and operation of an ˚angstrom-wavelength free-electron laser,” Nature Pho-
ton. 4(9), 641–647 (2010).
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SLAC, Menlo Park, California, USA
