James Coleman

High power operation of the JLab IR FEL driver accelerator

Operation of the JLab IR Upgrade FEL at CW powers in excess of 10 kW requires sustained production of high electron beam powers by the driver ERL. This in turn demands attention to numerous issues and effects, including: cathode lifetime; control of beamline and RF system vacuum during high current operation; longitudinal space charge; longitudinal and transverse matching of irregular/large volume phase space distributions; halo management; management of remnant dispersive effects; resistive wall, wake-field, and RF heating of beam vacuum chambers; the beam break up instability; the impact of coherent synchrotron radiation (both on beam quality and the performance of laser optics); magnetic component stability and reproducibility; and RF stability and reproducibility. We discuss our experience with these issues and describe the modus vivendi that has evolved during prolonged high current, high power beam and laser operation.

Bunch Length Measurements at the JLab FEL Using Coherent Transition and Synchrotron Radiation

The JLab FEL is routinely operated with sub‐picosecond bunches. The short bunch length is important for high gain of the FEL. Coherent transition radiation has been used for the bunch length measurements for many years. This diagnostic can be used only in the pulsed beam mode. It is our goal to run the FEL with CW beam and a 74.85 MHz micropulse repetition rate, which, with the 135 pC nominal bunch charge corresponds to the beam average current of 10 mA, Hence it is very desirable to have the possibility of making bunch length measurements when running CW beam with any micropulse frequency. We use a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) interferometer, which is essentially a Michelson interferometer, to measure the spectrum of the coherent synchrotron radiation generated in the last dipole of the magnetic bunch compressor upstream of the FEL wiggler. This noninvasive diagnostic provides bunch length measurements for CW beam operation at any micropulse frequency. We also compare the measurements made with the ...

Development of BPM Electronics at the JLAB FEL

A new version of BPM electronics based on the AD8362 RMS detector, which is a direct RF to DC converter, is under development at the JLAB FEL. Each of these new BPM electronics utilizes an embedded ColdFire Microprocessor for data processing and communication with the EPICS control system via TCP/IP. The ColdFire runs RTEMS, which is an open source real‐time operating system. The JLAB FEL is a SRF Energy Recovery LINAC capable of running up to 10 mA CW beam with a 74.85 MHz micropulse frequency. For diagnostic reasons and for machine tune up, the micropulse frequency can be reduced to 1.17 MHz, which corresponds to about 160 μA of beam current. It is required that the BPM system would be functional for all micropulse frequencies. By taking into account the headroom for the beam steering and current variations the dynamic range of the RF front end is required to be about 60 dB. A BPM resolution of at least 100 μm is required, whereas better resolution is very desirable to make it possible for more accurate...

Machine protection for high average current linacs

A fully integrated Machine Protection System (MPS) is critical to efficient commissioning and safe operation of all high current accelerators. The Jefferson Lab PEL has multiple electron beam paths and many different types of diagnostic insertion devices. The MPS needs to monitor both the status of these devices and the magnet settings which define the beam path. The matrix of these devices and beam paths are programmed into gate arrays, the output of the matrix is an allowable maximum average power limit. This power limit is enforced by the drive laser for the photocathode gun. The Beam Loss Monitors (BLMs), RF status, and laser safety system status are also inputs to the control matrix. There are 8 Machine Modes (electron path) and 8 Beam Modes (average power limits) that define the safe operating limits for the FEL. Combinations outside of this matrix are unsafe and the beam is inhibited. The power limits range from no beam to 2 megawatts of electron beam power. The timing requirements for the BLMs and RF is /spl sim/1 microsecond and for the insertion devices (viewers) is /spl sim/1 millisecond. The entire system is VME based and EPICS compatible. This paper describes the system as it is installed on the JLab 10 kW FEL.

Integrating a Machine Protection System for High-Current Free Electron Lasers and Energy Recovery Linacs

A fully integrated Machine Protection System (MPS) is critical to efficient commissioning and safe operation of all high-current accelerators. The MPS needs to monitor the status of all devices that could enter the beam path, the beam loss monitors (BLMs), magnet settings, beam dump status, etc. This information is then presented to the electron source controller, which must limit the beam power or shut down the beam completely. The MPS for the energy recovery linac (ERL) at the Jefferson Lab Free Electron Laser [1] generates eight different power limits, or beam modes, which are passed to the drive laser pulse controller (DLPC) (photocathode source controller). These range from no beam to nearly 2 megawatts of electron beam power. Automatic masking is used for the BLMs during low-power modes when one might be using beam viewers. The system also reviews the setup for the two different beamlines, the IR path or the UV path, and will allow or disallow operations based on magnet settings and valve positions. This paper will describe the approach taken for the JLab 10-kW FEL. Additional details can be found on our website http://laser.jlab.org [2].