Quinn R. Marksteiner

Numerical calculations of RF efficiency from a soliton generating nonlinear transmission line

The output frequency and RF generating efficiency of a lumped element or periodic transmission line with nonlinear capacitors and linear inductors is investigated, using both a purely resistive linear load and a load that contains linear reactive components. The nonlinear transmission line creates high frequency RF by converting a long unipolar input pulse into a train of rapidly oscillating solitons. The RF efficiency increases as the modulation depth between adjacent solitons deepens, and is affected by the nonlinearity of the line and the total number of nonlinear stages used. A linear resistive termination distorts the pulse so as to reduce the RF efficiency, particularly when the nonlinearity is high. The RF efficiency is found to increase significantly when a linear load with reactive elements is used which absorbs the desired high frequency component of the signal but reflects the remaining low frequency parts of the signal back into the line.

New X-ray free-electron laser architecture for generating high fluxes of longitudinally coherent 50 keV photons

Materials science needs to study dynamic properties of high-Z materials lead to a unique and challenging set of requirements for future X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), with single-pulse fluxes of up to 1012 50 keV X-rays that are both transversely and longitudinally coherent. These parameters cannot be met through an extension of the beam and FEL technologies used at existing and currently planned X-ray FEL facilities. We describe a novel technique to achieve higher fluxes by reducing the transverse beam emittance of high bunch charges and another to achieve longitudinal coherency by pre-modulating the electron beam current before it reaches the undulator. These techniques are investigated numerically and analytically, and also hold potential for increasing performance and decreasing cost of soft X-ray FELs.

Slip casting of sol–gel-synthesized barium strontium zirconium titanate ceramics

The sol–gel method was used to synthesize two different Ba0.75Sr0.25Ti0.95Zr0.05O3 powders: one of high purity and the other of low purity. These two sol–gel-synthesized powders show two distinct particle sizes and surface areas. The slip casting method was applied to these two sol–gel powders followed by a pressureless sintering, which shows large differences in sintered density and grain size for the pressureless sintered disks. Neutron powder diffraction shows a transition to the nonpolar cubic Pm–3m space group at higher temperatures for both materials. Pair distribution function analysis was used to examine the local displacements of the Ti4+ and Zr4+ cations. The dielectric constant, loss tangent, and bias were measured on these two materials.

Exploring Minimal Scenarios to Produce Transversely Bright Electron Beams Using the Eigen-Emittance Concept

Next generation hard X-ray free electron lasers require electron beams with low transverse emittance. One proposal to achieve these low emittances is to exploit the eigen-emittance values of the beam. The eigenemittances are invariant under linear beam transport and equivalent to the emittances in an uncorrelated beam. If a correlated beam with two small eigen-emittances can be produced, removal of the correlations via appropriate optics will lead to two small emittance values, provided non-linear eects are not too large. We study how such a beam may be produced using minimal linear correlations. We nd it is theoretically possible to produce such a beam, however it may be more dicult to realize in practice. We identify linear correlations that may lead to physically realizable emittance schemes and discuss promising future avenues.

Cavity resonator for dielectric measurements of high-ε, low loss materials, demonstrated with barium strontium zirconium titanate ceramics

A resonant cavity method is presented which can measure loss tangents and dielectric constants for materials with dielectric constant from 150 to 10 000 and above. This practical and accurate technique is demonstrated by measuring barium strontium zirconium titanate bulk ferroelectric ceramic blocks. Above the Curie temperature, in the paraelectric state, barium strontium zirconium titanate has a sufficiently low loss that a series of resonant modes are supported in the cavity. At each mode frequency, the dielectric constant and loss tangent are obtained. The results are consistent with low frequency measurements and computer simulations. A quick method of analyzing the raw data using the 2D static electromagnetic modeling code SuperFish and an estimate of uncertainties are presented.

Using Emittance Partitioning Instead of a Laser Heater to Suppress the Microbunch Instability

At the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser, a laser “heater” is used to generate an uncorrelated 20-keV energy spread on an electron beam to suppress the microbunching instability in downstream bunch compressors. Here we describe an alternative approach using emittance partitioning, where the increase in energy spread is generated by moving phase space volume from the transverse dimensions into the longitudinal dimension. For LCLS-relevant beam parameters, about a factor of six reduction in the product of both transverse emittances is feasible with the same amount of induced energy spread, with additional improvements possible with an optimized setup.

Lamination of magnesium oxide spacers to barium strontium zirconium titanate ceramics

We propose an innovative idea to bond the dielectric barium strontium zirconium titanate (BSTZO) plates with magnesium oxide (MgO) as the spacers to achieve a hermetic module without any air gaps between the dielectric and the spacer. The gold metallization can be applied across the whole assembly to create an integrated electrode. The gold metallization also eliminates pressure contact by external copper plates assemblies, which are required to achieve good contacts between the copper plates and the metallized surfaces of the BSTZO. The MgO spacers are processed using a dry-pressing and pressureless-sintering method. The thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) of BSTZO and MgO spacer was measured. In addition to matching the CTE between BSTZO dielectric and the MgO spacer, it is also critical to develop a good bonding material with CTE matching to BSTZO and MgO spacer. The effect of CTE for various bonding compositions on the dielectric properties was thoroughly studied and reported. The mechanism explaining the high and low dielectric constants for the laminates is proposed and discussed based on the CTE results and their effect on microstructural development.

Distributed seeding for narrow-line width hard x-ray free-electron lasers

We describe a new FEL line-narrowing technique called distributed seeding (DS), using Si(111) Bragg crystal monochromators to enhance the spectral brightness of the MaRIE hard X-ray freeelectron laser. DS differs from self-seeding in three important aspects. First, DS relies on spectral filtering of the radiation at multiple locations along the undulator, with a monochromator located every few power gain lengths. Second, DS performs filtering early in the exponential gain region before SASE spikes start to appear in the radiation longitudinal profile. Third, DS provides the option to select a wavelength longer than the peak of the SASE gain curve, which leads to improved spectral contrast of the seeded FEL over the SASE background. Timedependent Genesis simulations show the power-vs-z growth curves for DS exhibit behaviors of a seeded FEL amplifier, such as exponential growth region immediately after the filters. Of the seeding approaches considered, the two-stage DS spectra produce the highest contrast of seeded FEL over the SASE background and that the three-stage DS provides the narrowest linewidth with a relative spectral FWHM of 8 X 10-5 .