S.V. Benson

A High Average Current DC GAAS Photocathode Gun for ERLS and FELS

The Jefferson Lab (JLab) 10 kW IR Upgrade FEL DC GaAs photocathode gun is presently the highest average current electron source operational in the U.S., delivering a record 9.1 mA CW, 350 kV electron beam with 122 pC/bunch at 75 MHz rep rate. Pulsed operation has also been demonstrated with 8 mA per pulse (110 pC/bunch) in 16 ms-long pulses at 2 Hz rep rate. Routinely the gun delivers 5 mA CW and pulse current at 135 pC/bunch for FEL operations. The Upgrade DC photocathode gun is a direct evolution of the DC photocathode gun used in the previous JLab 1 kW IR Demo FEL. Improvements in the vacuum conditions, incorporation of two UHV motion mechanisms (a retractable cathode and a photocathode shield door) and a new way to add cesium to the GaAs photocathode surface have extended its lifetime to over 500 Coulombs delivered between re-cesiations (quantum efficiency replenishment). With each photocathode activation quantum efficiencies above 6% are routinely achieved. The photocathode activation and performance will be described in detail.

First Lasing of the Jefferson Lab IR Demo FEL

As reported previously [1], Jefferson Lab is building a free-electron laser capable of generating a continuous wave kilowatt laser beam. The driver-accelerator consists of a superconducting, energy-recovery accelerator. The initial stage of the program was to produce over 100 W of average power with no recirculation. In order to provide maximum gain the initial wavelength was chosen to be 5 mu-m and the initial beam energy was chosen to be 38.5 MeV. On June 17, 1998, the laser produced 155 Watts cw power at the laser output with a 98% reflective output coupler. On July 28th, 311 Watts cw power was obtained using a 90% reflective output coupler. A summary of the commissioning activities to date as well as some novel lasing results will be summarized in this paper. Present work is concentrated on optimizing lasing at 5 mu-m, obtaining lasing at 3 mu-m, and commissioning the recirculation transport in preparation for kilowatt lasing this fall.

Selective photothermolysis to target sebaceous glands: Theoretical estimation of parameters and preliminary results using a free electron laser†

The success of permanent laser hair removal suggests that selective photothermolysis (SP) of sebaceous glands, another part of hair follicles, may also have merit. About 30% of sebum consists of fats with copious CH2 bond content. SP was studied in vitro, using free electron laser (FEL) pulses at an infrared CH2 vibrational absorption wavelength band.

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.

Analysis of the FEL-RF interaction in recirculating energy-recovering linacs with an FEL

Abstract Recirculating, energy-recovering linacs can be used as driver accelerators for high power FELs. Instabilities which arise from fluctuations of the cavity fields are investigated. Energy changes can cause beam loss on apertures, phase oscillations and optical cavity detuning. These effects in turn cause changes in the laser output power through a time-varying FEL gain function. All three effects change the beam-induced voltage in the cavities and can lead to unstable variations of the accelerating field and output laser power. We have developed a model of the coupled system and solved it both analytically and numerically. It includes the beam-cavity interaction, low level RF feedback, and the electron–photon interaction. The latter includes the FEL gain function in terms of cavity detuning, energy offset, and is valid both in the small signal gain and in the saturated regimes. We have demonstrated that in the limit of small perturbations, the linear theory agrees with the numerical solutions and have performed numerical simulations for the IR FEL presently being commissioned at Jefferson Lab.

An Experimental Study of an FEL Oscillator with a Linear Taper

Motivated by the work of Saldin, Schneidmiller and Yurkov, we have measured the detuning curve widths, spectral characteristics, efficiency, and energy spread as a function of the taper for low and high Q resonators in the IR Demo FEL at Jefferson Lab. Both positive and negative tapers were used. Gain and frequency agreed reasonably well with the predictions of a single mode theory. The efficiency agreed reasonably well for a negative taper with a high Q resonator but disagreed for lower Q values due to the large slippage parameter and the non-ideal resonator Q. We saw better efficiency for a negative taper than for the same positive taper. The energy spread induced in the beam, normalized to the efficiency is larger for the positive taper than for the corresponding negative taper. This indicates that a negative taper is preferred over a positive taper in an energy recovery FEL.

A 10 kW IRFEL design for Jefferson Lab

Recent work at Jefferson Lab has demonstrated the viability of same-cell energy recovery as a basis for a high average power free-electron laser (FEL). We are now extending this technique to lase at average powers in excess of 10 kW in the infrared. This upgrade will also produce over 1 kW in the UV and generate high brightness Thomson back-scattered X-rays. The power increase will be achieved by increasing the electron beam energy by a factor of four, and the beam current and the FEL design efficiency by a factor of two. Utilization of a near-concentric optical cavity is enabled by the use of very low loss state-of-the-art coatings. The FEL will be placed in the return leg of the electron beam transport, giving a machine footprint quite similar to that of the existing 1 kW IR device. Some features of the upgrade are straightforward extensions of those in the present 1 kW design; others break new ground and present new challenges. These will be described. The required electron beam parameters and the laser performance estimates will be summarized. Changes required in the electron beam transport will be outlined and the optical cavity design briefly reviewed.

DC High Voltage Conditioning of Photoemission Guns at Jefferson Lab FEL

DC high voltage photoemission electron guns with GaAs photocathodes have been used to produce polarized electron beams for nuclear physics experiments for about 3 decades with great success. In the late 1990s, Jefferson Lab adopted this gun technology for a free electron laser (FEL), but to assist with high bunch charge operation, considerably higher bias voltage is required compared to the photoguns used at the Jefferson Lab Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility. The FEL gun has been conditioned above 400 kV several times, albeit encountering non‐trivial challenges with ceramic insulators and field emission from electrodes. Recently, high voltage processing with krypton gas was employed to process very stubborn field emitters. This work presents a summary of the high voltage techniques used to high voltage condition the Jefferson Lab FEL photoemission gun.

Simulations of the 100 kW TJNAF FEL using a short Rayleigh length

The TJNAF FEL can be upgraded to operate at 100 kW average power and then explore the use of a short Rayleigh length in order to reduce the power density on the resonator mirrors. The short Rayleigh length can only work with a relatively short undulator. Multimode simulations are used to self-consistently model the optical mode interaction with the electron beam. The steady-state resonator mode is affected by the complex, non-linear electron beam evolution as well as the resonator design.

Optical modeling of the Jefferson Laboratory IR Demo FEL

The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (formerly known as CEBAF) has embarked on the construction of a 1 kW free-electron laser operating initially at 3 microns that is designed for laser-material interaction experiments and to explore the feasibility of scaling the system in power and wavelength for industrial and Navy defense applications. The accelerator system for this IR demo includes a 10 MeV photocathode-based injector, a 32 MeV CEBAF-style superconducting radio-frequency linac, and single-pass transport which accelerates the beam from injector to wiggler, followed by energy-recovery deceleration to a dump. The electron and optical beam time structure in the design consists of a train of picosecond pulses at 37.425 MHz pulse repetition rate. The initial optical configuration is a conventional near-concentric resonator with transmissive outcoupling. Future upgrades of the system will increase the power and shorten the operating wavelength, and utilize a more advanced resonator system capable of scaling to high powers. The optical system of the laser has been modeled using the GLADR code by using a Beers-law region to mimic the FEL interaction. Effects such as mirror heating have been calculated and compared with analytical treatments. The magnitude of the distortion for several materials and wavelengths has been estimated. The advantages as well as the limitations of this approach are discussed.