• J.B. Rosenzweig, A.M. Cook, M.C. Thompson, R.B. Yoder
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

Recent proposals for using plasma wakefield accelerators in the blowout regime as a component of a linear collider have included very intense driver and accelerating beams, which have densities many times in excess of the ambient plasma density. The electric fields of these beams are widely known to be large enough to completely expel plasma electrons from the beam path; the expelled electrons often attain relativistic velocities in the process. We examine here another aspect of this high-beam density scenario: the motion of ions. In the lowest order analysis, for both cylindrically symmetric and "flat" beams, it is seen that for the recently discussed "after-burner" scenario the ions completely collapse inside of the electron beam. In this case the ion density is significantly increased, with a large increase in the beam emittance expected as a result. Particle-in-cell simulations of ion-collapse in the nonlinear regime are discussed.

• J.E. Ralph, C. Joshi, J.B. Rosenzweig, C. Sung, S. Tochitsky
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

To achieve phase locked injection of short electron bunches in a plasma beatwave accelerator, the Neptune Laboratory will utilize microbunching in an FEL or IFEL system. These systems require terahertz (THz) seed radiation on the order of 10 kW for the FEL and 10 MW for the IFEL bunchers. We report results of experiments on THz generation using nonlinear frequency mixing of CO2 laser lines in GaAs. A two-wavelength laser beam was split and sent onto a 2.5 cm long GaAs crystal cut for noncollinear phase matching. Low power measurements achieved ~1 W of 340 ?m radiation using 200 ns CO2 pump pulses with wavelengths 10.3?m and 10.6?m. We also demonstrated tunability of difference frequency radiation, producing 240?m by mixing two different CO2 laser lines. By going to shorter laser pulses and higher intensities, we were able to increase the conversion efficiency while decreasing the surface damage threshold. Using 200ps pulses we produced ~2 MW of 340 ?m radiation. Future studies in this area will focus on developing large diameter Quasi-Phase matched structures for production of high power THz radiation.

• C. Sung, C.E. Clayton, C. Joshi, P. Musumeci, C. Pellegrini, J.E. Ralph, S. Reiche, J.B. Rosenzweig, S. Tochitsky
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

In order to obtain monoenergetic acceleration of electrons, phase-locked injection using electron microbunches shorter than the accelerating structure is necessary. For a laser-driven plasma beatwave accelerator experiment, we propose to microbunch the electrons by interaction with terahertz (THz) radiation in an undulator via two mechanisms– free electron laser (FEL) and inverse free electron laser (IFEL). Since the high power FIR radiation will be generated via difference frequency mixing in GaAs by the same CO2 beatwave used to drive the plasma wave, electrons could be phase-locked and pre-bunched into a series of microbunches separated with the same periodicity. Here we examine the criteria for undulator design and present simulation results for both IFEL and FEL approaches. Using different CO2 laser lines, electrons can be microbunched with different periodicity 300 – 100 mm suitable for injection into plasma densities in the range 1016 – 1017 cm-3, respectively. The requirement on the THz radiation power and the electron beam qualities are also discussed.

• M.C. Thompson, H. Badakov, J.B. Rosenzweig, G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• H. Edwards, R.P. Fliller, G.M. Kazakevich, P. Piot, J.K. Santucci
  Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois
• J.L. Li, R. Tikhoplav
  Rochester University, Rochester, New York

An underdense plasma lens experiment is planned as a collaboration between UCLA and the Fermilab NICADD Photoinjector Laboratory (FNPL). The experiment will focus on measuring the variation of the plasma focusing along the longitudinal beam axis and comparing these results with theory and simulation. The experiment will utilize a thin gaussian underdense plasma lens with peak density 6 x 10¹² cm-3 and a FWHM length of 1.6 cm. This plasma lens will have a focusing strength equivalent to a quadrupole magnet with a 180 T/m field gradient. A 15 MeV, 8nC electron beam with nominal dimensions sr = 400 μm and sz = 2.1 mm will be focused by this plasma lens onto an OTR screen approximately 2 cm downstream of the lens. The light from the OTR screen will be imaged into a streak camera in order to directly measure the correlation between z and sr within the beam. Status and progress on the experiment are reported.

• M.C. Thompson, H. Badakov, J.B. Rosenzweig, G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• M.J. Hogan, R. Ischebeck, R. Siemann, D.R. Walz
  SLAC, Menlo Park, California
• P. Muggli
  USC, Los Angeles, California
• A. Scott
  UCSB, Santa Barbara, California
• R.B. Yoder
  ,

An experiment is planned to study the performance of dielectric Cerenkov wakefield accelerating structures at extremely high gradients in the GV/m range. This new UCLA/SLAC collaboration will take advantage of the unique SLAC FFTB electron beam and its demonstrated ultra-short pulse lengths and high currents (e.g., sz = 20 μm at Q = 3 nC). The electron beam will be focused down and sent through varying lengths of fused silica capillary tubing with two different sizes: ID = 200 μm / OD = 325 μm and ID = 100 μm / OD = 325 μm. The pulse length of the electron beam will be varied in order to alter the accelerating gradient and probe the breakdown threshold of the dielectric structures. In addition to breakdown studies, we plan to collect and measure coherent Cerenkov radiation emitted from the capillary tube to gain information about the strength of the accelerating fields. Status and progress on the experiment are reported.

• F. Zhou, R.B. Agustsson, G. Andonian, D. Cline, A.Y. Murokh, J.B. Rosenzweig
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• I. Ben-Zvi, V. Yakimenko
  BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York

Coherent synchrotron radiation can significantly distort beam phase spaces in longitudinal direction and bending plane through a bunch compressor. A tomography technique is used to reconstruct transverse phase space of electron beam. Transverse 4-D phase spaces are systematically measured at UCLA/ATF compressor and their characteristics with different bunch compression conditions are analyzed.

• J.B. Rosenzweig, A.M. Cook, M.P. Dunning, P. Frigola, G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• D.T. Palmer
  SLAC, Menlo Park, California
• C. Sanelli, F. Tazzioli
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)

The rf photocathode gun and the solenoid for the SPARC project at INFN-LNF (Frascati) have been fabricated and undergone initial testing at UCLA. The advanced aspects of the design of these devices are detailed. Final diagnosis of the tuning of the RF gun performance, including operating mode frequency and field balance, is described. The emittance compensating solenoid magnet, which is designed to be tuned in longitudinal position by differential excitation of the coils, has been measured using Hall probe scans for field profiling, and pulsed wire methods to determine the field center.

• R.J. England, B. O'Shea, J.B. Rosenzweig, G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• D. Alesini
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)

We report progress on the design and construction of a nine-cell dipole (TM 110 mode) cavity for use as a temporal diagnostic of the 14 MeV 300 pC electron bunches generated at the UCLA Neptune Laboratory linear accelerator, with an anticipated temporal resolution of 150 fs at a peak input power of 50 kW. The cavity is a center-fed standing-wave pi-mode structure, operating at 9.6 GHz, and incorporating a knife-edge and gasket assembly which minimizes the need for brazing or welding. Results of initial RF tests are discussed and compared with simulation results obtained using the commercial code HFSS.

• P. Musumeci, S. Boucher, C.E. Clayton, A. Doyuran, R.J. England, C. Joshi, C. Pellegrini, J.E. Ralph, J.B. Rosenzweig, C. Sung, S. Tochitsky, G. Travish, R.B. Yoder
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• S.V. Tolmachev, A. Varfolomeev, A. Varfolomeev, T.V. Yarovoi
  RRC Kurchatov Institute, Moscow

• A.M. Tremaine, S.G. Anderson, S.M. Betts, K. Crane, D.J. Gibson, F.V. Hartemann, J.S. Jacob
  LLNL, Livermore, California
• P. Frigola, J. Lim, J.B. Rosenzweig, G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

PLEIADES (Picosecond Laser Electron Interaction for the Dynamic Evaluation of Structures) produces tunable 30-140 keV x-rays with 0.3-5 ps pulse lengths and 10⁷ photons/pulse by colliding a high brightness electron beam with a high power laser. The electron beam is created by an rf photo-injector system, accelerated by a 120 MeV linac, and focused to 20 mm with novel permanent magnet quadrupoles. To produce Compton back scattered x-rays, the electron bunch is overlapped with a Ti:Sapphire laser that delivers 500 mJ, 80 fs, pulses to the interaction point. K-edge radiography at 115 keV on Uranium has verified the angle correlated energy spectrum inherent in Compton scattering and high-energy tunability of the Livermore source. Current upgrades to the facility will allow laser pumping of targets synchronized to the x-ray source enabling dynamic diffraction and time-resolved studies of high Z materials. Near future plans include extending the radiation energies to >400 keV, allowing for nuclear fluorescence studies of materials.

• J. Lim, A. Doyuran, P. Frigola, J.B. Rosenzweig, G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• S.G. Anderson, M. Betts, K. Crane, D.J. Gibson, F.V. Hartemann, A.M. Tremaine
  LLNL, Livermore, California

We describe an experiment for production of high harmonic x-ray radiation from Thomson backscattering of an ultra-short high power density laser by a relativistic electron beam at the PLEIADES facility at LLNL. In this scenario, electrons execute a “figure-8” motion under the influence of the high-intensity laser field, where the constant characterizing the field strength is expected to exceed unity: $aL=e*EL/m*c*ωL ≥ 1$. With large $aL$ this motion produces high harmonic x-ray radiation and significant broadening of the spectral peaks. This paper is intended to give a layout of the PLEIADES experiment, along with progress towards experimental goals.

• S. Reiche, C. Joshi, C. Pellegrini, J.B. Rosenzweig, S. Tochitsky
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• G. Shvets
  The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

Free-Electron Laser in the THz range can be used to generate high output power radiation or to modulate the electron beam longitudinally on the radiation wavelength scale. Microbunching on the scale of 1-5 THz is of particular importance for potential phase-locking of a modulated electron beam to a laser-driven plasma accelerating structure. However the lack of a seeding source for the FEL at this spectral range limits operation to a SASE FEL only, which denies a subpicosecond synchronization of the current modulation or radiation with an external laser source. One possibility to overcome this problem is to seed the FEL with two external laser beams, which difference (beat-wave) frequency is matched to the resonant FEL frequency in the THz range. In this presentation we study feasibility of an experiment on laser beat-wave injection in the THz FEL considered at the UCLA Neptune Laboratory, where both a high brightness photoinjector and a two-wavelength, TW-class CO2 laser system exist. By incorporating the energy modulation of the electron beam by the ponderomotive force of the beat-wave in a modified version of the time-dependent FEL code Genesis 1.3, the performance of a FEL at Neptune is simulated and analyzed.

• A. Doyuran, R.J. England, C. Joshi, J. Lim, J.B. Rosenzweig, S. Tochitsky, G. Travish, O. Williams
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

An Inverse Compton Scattering (ICS) experiment, which will investigate nonlinear properties of scattering utilizing a terawatt CO2 laser system with various polarizations, is ongoing at the UCLA Neptune Laboratory. When the normalized amplitude of the incident laser’s vector potential a0 is larger than unity the scattering occurs in the nonlinear region; therefore, higher harmonics are also produced. ICS can be used, e.g., for a polarized positron source by striking a thin target (such as tungsten) with the polarized X-rays. As such, it is critical to demonstrate the production of polarized scattered photons and to investigate the ICS process as it enters the nonlinear regime. We present the description of the experimental set up and equipment utilized, including diagnostics for electron and photon beam detection. We present the current status of the experiment.

• S.G. Anderson, J. Brown, D.J. Gibson, F.V. Hartemann, J.S. Jacob, A.M. Tremaine
  LLNL, Livermore, California
• P. Frigola, J. Lim, J.B. Rosenzweig, G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• P. Musumeci
  INFN-Roma, Roma

Current and future applications of high brightness electron beams, which include advanced accelerators such as the plasma wake-field accelerator (PWFA) and beam-radiation interactions such as inverse-Compton scattering (ICS), require both transverse and longitudinal beam sizes on the order of tens of microns. Ultra-high density beams may be produced at moderate energy (50 MeV) by compression and subsequent strong focusing of low emittance, photoinjector sources. We describe the implementation of this method used at LLNL’s PLEIADES ICS x-ray source in which the photoinjector-generated beam has been compressed to 300 fsec duration using the velocity bunching technique and focused to 20 μm rms size using an extremely high gradient, permanent magnet quadrupole (PMQ) focusing system.

• L. Serafini, F. Alessandria, A. Bacci, S. Cialdi, C. De Martinis, D. Giove, M. Mauri, M. Rome, L. Serafini
  INFN-Milano, Milano
• D. Alesini, M. Bellaveglia, S. Bertolucci, M.E. Biagini, R. Boni, M. Boscolo, M. Castellano, A. Clozza, G. Di Pirro, A. Drago, A. Esposito, M. Ferrario, L. Ficcadenti, D. Filippetto, V. Fusco, A. Gallo, G. Gatti, A. Ghigo, S. Guiducci, M. Incurvati, C. Ligi, F. Marcellini, M.  Migliorati, A. Mostacci, L. Palumbo, L. Pellegrino, M.A. Preger, R. Ricci, C. Sanelli, M. Serio, F. Sgamma, B. Spataro, A. Stecchi, A. Stella, F. Tazzioli, C. Vaccarezza, M. Vescovi, C. Vicario
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
• I. Boscolo, C. Maroli, V. Petrillo
  Universita' degli Studi di Milano, MILANO
• F. Broggi
  INFN/LASA, Segrate (MI)
• L. Catani, E. Chiadroni, A. Cianchi, E. Gabrielli, S. Tazzari
  INFN-Roma II, Roma
• F. Ciocci, G. Dattoli, A. Dipace, A. Doria, F. Flora, G.P. Gallerano, L. Giannessi, E. Giovenale, G. Messina, P.L. Ottaviani, S. Pagnutti, G. Parisi, L. Picardi, M. Quattromini, A. Renieri, G. Ronci, C. Ronsivalle, M. Rosetti, E. Sabia, M. Sassi, A. Torre, A. Zucchini
  ENEA C.R. Frascati, Frascati (Roma)
• D. Dowell, P. Emma, C. Limborg-Deprey, D.T. Palmer
  SLAC, Menlo Park, California
• D. Levi, M. Mattioli, G. Medici, P. Musumeci, D. Pelliccia
  Università di Roma I La Sapienza, Roma
• M. Nisoli, S. Stagira, S. de Silvestri
  Politecnico/Milano, Milano
• M. Petrarca
  INFN-Roma, Roma
• J.B. Rosenzweig
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

• G. Andonian, R.B. Agustsson, P. Frigola, A.Y. Murokh, C. Pellegrini, S. Reiche, J.B. Rosenzweig, G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• M. Babzien, I. Ben-Zvi, V. Litvinenko, V. Yakimenko
  BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
• I. Boscolo, S. Cialdi, A.F. Flacco
  INFN-Milano, Milano
• M. Ferrario, L. Palumbo, C. Vicario
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
• J.Y. Huang
  PAL, Pohang, Kyungbuk