V V Zelenogorskii

Disk Yb:KGW amplifier of profiled pulses of laser driver for electron photoinjector.

We investigated a diode-pumped multipass disk Yb:KGW amplifier intended for amplifying a train of 3D ellipsoidal pulses of a laser driver for a photocathode of a linear electron accelerator. The multipass amplification geometry permitted increasing the energy of broadband (about 10 nm) pulses with a repetition rate of 1 MHz from 0.12 µJ to 39 µJ, despite large losses (two orders of magnitude) introduced by a beam shaper of 3D ellipsoidal beam. The distortions of the pulse train envelope were minimal due to optimal delay between the moment of pump switching on and arrival of the first pulse of the train.

Shaping of cylindrical and 3D ellipsoidal beams for electron photoinjector laser drivers.

With the use of spatial light modulators it became possible to implement in experiments the method of controlling the space-time intensity distribution of femtosecond laser pulses stretched to picosecond duration. Cylindrical and quasi-ellipsoidal intensity distributions were obtained and characterized by means of a 2D spectrograph and a cross-correlator.

Generation of 3D ellipsoidal laser beams by means of a profiled volume chirped Bragg grating

A method for shaping photocathode laser driver pulses into 3D ellipsoidal form has been proposed and implemented. The key idea of the method is to use a chirped Bragg grating recorded within the ellipsoid volume and absent outside it. If a beam with a constant (within the grating reflection band) spectral density and uniform (within the grating aperture) cross-section is incident on such a grating, the reflected beam will be a 3D ellipsoid in space and time. 3D ellipsoidal beams were obtained in experiment for the first time. It is expected that such laser beams will allow the electron bunch emittance to be reduced when applied at R± photo injectors.

JINR LHEP photoinjector prototype

A photoinjector prototype for future electron–positron colliders and free-electron lasers (FEL) is being developed at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR). A 30-keV photogun stand, transmission (backside irradiated) photocathode concept, and stand investigations of such cathodes in collaboration with Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEE SAS) (Bratislava, the Slovak Republic) are described. A progress report on creating the photoinjector at an electron energy of up to 400 keV with a unique 10-ps laser driver is given.

Fiber laser with random-access pulse train profiling for a photoinjector driver

We report on the design and performance of a fiber laser system with adaptive acousto-optic macropulse control for a novel photocathode laser driver with 3D ellipsoidal pulse shaping. The laser system incorporates a three-stage fiber amplifier with an integrated acousto-optical modulator. A digital electronic control system with feedback combines the functions of the arbitrary micropulse selection and modulation resulting in macropulse envelope profiling. As a benefit, a narrow temporal transparency window of the modulator, comparable to a laser pulse repetition period, effectively improves temporal contrast. In experiments, we demonstrated rectangular laser pulse train profiling at the output of a three-cascade Yb-doped fiber amplifier.