The automation upgrade of the photoinjector for the Compact X-Ray Light Source (CXLS) at Arizona State University is described. As the accelerator vault of the CXLS is only 10 meters long, the photoinjector drive laser is located in an enclosure inside the vault. Since ionizing radiation is present in this room during operations, it necessitates remote control of all devices used to optimize the laser spot. This includes multiple shutters, Galil motors, picomotors, a mirror flipper, LEDs, and remote lens controllers. To actuate these devices, a GUI was created with the use of MATLAB AppDesigner which communicates with the hardware through EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System). Challenges with this GUI are described, along with the team’s efforts to finalize the control software. After these upgrades, the photoinjector laser characteristics can be adjusted remotely during operation and changes to the drive laser’s position, shape, and intensity can be made without interrupting beam time.

The Compact X-ray Light Source (CXLS) is a compact source of femtosecond pulses of x-rays that is now commissioning in the hard x-ray energy range 4-20 keV. It collides the beams from recently developed X-band distributed-coupling, room-temperature, standing-wave linacs and photoinjectors operating at 1 kHz repetition rates and 9300 MHz RF frequency, and recently developed Yb-based lasers operating at high peak and average power to produce fs pulses of 1030 nm light at 1 kHz repetition rate with pulse energy up to 200 mJ. These instruments are designed to drive a user program in time-resolved x-ray studies such as SAXS/WAXS, XES and XAS, femtosecond crystallography as well as imaging. The different technical systems also act as prototypes for the more advanced CXFEL discussed elsewhere in these proceedings. We present the performance of the CXLS technical components and initial x-ray results.

The automation upgrade of the photoinjector for the Compact X-Ray Light Source (CXLS) at Arizona State University is described. As the accelerator vault of the CXLS is only 10 meters long, the photoinjector drive laser is located in an enclosure inside the vault. Since ionizing radiation is present in this room during operations, it necessitates remote control of all devices used to optimize the laser spot. This includes multiple shutters, Galil motors, picomotors, a mirror flipper, LEDs, and remote lens controllers. To actuate these devices, a GUI was created with the use of MATLAB AppDesigner which communicates with the hardware through EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System). Challenges with this GUI are described, along with the team’s efforts to finalize the control software. After these upgrades, the photoinjector laser characteristics can be adjusted remotely during operation and changes to the drive laser’s position, shape, and intensity can be made without interrupting beam time.