Xiangyun Chang

Secondary Emission Enhanced Photoinjector

We report a new approach to the generation of high-current, high-brightness electron beams. Primary electrons are produced by a photocathode (or other means) and are accelerated to a few thousand electron-volts, then strike a specially prepared diamond window. The large Secondary Electron Yield (SEY) provides a multiplication of the number of electrons by about two orders of magnitude. The secondary electrons drift through the diamond under an electric field and emerge into the accelerating proper of the “gun” through a Negative Electron Affinity surface of the diamond. The advantages of the new approach include the following: 1. Reduction of the number of primary electrons by the large SEY, i.e. a very low laser power in a photocathode producing the primaries. 2. Low thermal emittance due to the NEA surface and the rapid thermalization of the electrons.3. Protection of the cathode from possible contamination from the gun, allowing the use of large quantum efficiency but sensitive cathodes. 4. Protection of the gun from possible contamination by the cathode, allowing the use of superconducting gun cavities. 5. Production of high average currents, up to ampere class. 6. Encapsulated design, making the “load-lock” systems unnecessary. Section

Multiscale three-dimensional simulations of charge gain and transport in diamond

A promising new concept of a diamond-amplified photocathode for generation of high-current, high-brightness, and low thermal emittance electron beams was recently proposed and is currently under active development. Detailed understanding of physical processes with multiple energy and time scales is required to design reliable and efficient diamond-amplifier cathodes. We have implemented models, within the VORPAL computational framework, to simulate secondary electron generation and charge transport in diamond in order to facilitate the investigation of the relevant effects involved. The models include inelastic scattering of electrons and holes for generation of electron-hole pairs, elastic, phonon, and charge impurity scattering. We describe the integrated modeling capabilities we developed and present results on charge gain and collection efficiency as a function of primary electron energy and applied electric field. We compare simulation results with available experimental data. The simulations show an overall qualitative agreement with the observed charge gain from transmission mode experiments and have enabled better understanding of the collection efficiency measurements.

High Current Energy Recovery Linac at BNL

We present the design and parameters of an energy recovery linac (ERL) facility, which is under construction in the Collider-Accelerator Department at BNL. This R&D facility has the goal of demonstrating CW operation of an ERL with an average beam current in the range of 0.1 - 1 ampere and with very high efficiency of energy recovery. The possibility of a future upgrade to a two-pass ERL is also being considered. The heart of the facility is a 5-cell 703.75 MHz super-conducting RF linac with strong Higher Order Mode (HOM) damping. The flexible lattice of the ERL provides a test-bed for exploring issues of transverse and longitudinal instabilities and diagnostics of intense CW electron beams. This ERL is also perfectly suited for a far-IR FEL. We present the status and plans for construction and commissioning of this facility.

Electron Cooling of RHIC

We report progress on the R&D program for electron-cooling of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). This electron cooler is designed to cool 100 GeV/nucleon at storage energy using 54 MeV electrons. The electron source will be a superconducting RF photocathode gun. The accelerator will be a superconducting energy recovery linac. The frequency of the accelerator is set at 703.75 MHz. The maximum electron bunch frequency is 9.38 MHz, with bunch charge of 20 nC. The R&D program has the following components: The photoinjector and its photocathode, the superconducting linac cavity, start-to-end beam dynamics with magnetized electrons, electron cooling calculations including benchmarking experiments and development of a large superconducting solenoid. The photoinjector and linac cavity are being incorporated into an energy recovery linac aimed at demonstrating ampere class current at about 20 MeV.

Extremely High Current, High-Brightness Energy Recovery Linac

Next generation light-sources, electron coolers, high-power FELs, Compton X-ray sources and many other accelerators were made possible by the emerging technology of high-power, high-brightness electron beams. In order to get the anticipated performance level of ampere-class currents, many technological barriers are yet to be broken. BNL’s Collider-Accelerator Department is pursuing some of these technologies for its electron cooling of RHIC application, as well as a possible future electron-hadron collider. We will describe work on CW, high-current and high-brightness electron beams. This will include a description of a superconducting, laser-photocathode RF gun and an accelerator cavity capable of producing low emittance (about 1 micron rms normalized) one nano-Coulomb bunches at currents of the order of one ampere average.

Optics for High Brightness and High Current ERL Project at BNL

An energy recovery linac (ERL), under development at Brookhaven National Laboratory [1,2], will push ERLs further towards high current and high brightness beams. This R&D ERL will operate in two modes: a high current mode and a high charge mode. In this paper we present a lattice of the machine and PARMELA simulations from the cathode to the beam dump. We discuss the design considerations and present main parameters for various modes of operation.

R&D towards cooling of the RHIC collider

We introduce the R&D program for electron-cooling of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). This electron cooler is designed to cool 100 GeV/nucleon bunched-beam ion collider at storage energy using 54 MeV electrons. The electron source will be an RF photocathode gun. The accelerator will be a superconducting energy recovery linac. The frequency of the accelerator is set at 703.75 MHz. The maximum bunch frequency is 28.15 MHz, with bunch charge of 10 nC. The R&D program has the following components: The photoinjector, the superconducting linac, start-to-end beam dynamics with magnetized electrons, electron cooling calculations and development of a large superconducting solenoid.

Beam dynamics limits for low-energy RHIC operation

There is a strong interest in low-energy RHIC operations in the single-beam total energy range of 2.5-25 GeV/nucleon [1-3]. Collisions in this energy range, much of which is below nominal RHIC injection energy, will help to answer one of the key questions in the field of QCD about the existence and location of a critical point on the QCD phase diagram [4]. There have been several short test runs during 2006-2008 RHIC operations to evaluate RHIC operational challenges at these low energies [5]. Beam lifetimes observed during the test runs were limited by machine nonlinearities. This performance limit can be improved with sufficient machine tuning. The next luminosity limitation comes from transverse and longitudinal Intra-beam Scattering (IBS), and ultimately from the space-charge limit. Here we summarize dynamic effects limiting beam lifetime and possible improvement with electron cooling.

Recent progress on the diamond amplified photo-cathode experiment

We report recent progress on the diamond amplified photo-cathode (DAP). The use of a pulsed electron gun provides detailed information about the DAP physics. The secondary electron gain has been measured under various electric fields. We have achieved gains of a few hundred in the transmission mode and observed evidence of emission of electrons from the surface. A model based on recombination of electrons and holes during generation well describes the field dependence of the gain. The emittance measurement system for the DAP has been designed, constructed and is ready for use. The capsule design of the DAP is also being studied in parallel.

Status of the R&D towards electron cooling of RHIC

The physics interest in a luminosity upgrade of RHIC requires the development of a cooling-frontier facility. Detailed calculations were made of electron cooling of the stored RHIC beams. This has been followed by beam dynamics simulations to establish the feasibility of creating the necessary electron beam. The electron beam accelerator will be a superconducting Energy Recovery Linac (ERL). An intensive experimental R&D program engages the various elements of the accelerator, as described by 24 contributions to the 2007 PAC.