No Arabic abstract
We demonstrate a compact technique to compress electron pulses to attosecond length, while keeping the energy spread reasonably small. The technique is based on Dielectric Laser Acceleration (DLA) in nanophotonic silicon structures. Unlike previous ballistic optical microbunching demonstrations, we use a modulator-demodulator scheme to compress phase space in the time and energy coordinates. With a second stage, we show that these pulses can be coherently accelerated, producing a net energy gain of $1.5pm0.1$ keV, which is significantly larger than the remaining energy spread of $0.88 ,_{-0.2}^{+0.0}$ keV FWHM. We show that by linearly sweeping the phase between the two stages, the energy spectrum can be coherently moved in a periodic manner, while keeping the energy spread roughly constant. After leaving the buncher, the electron pulse is also transversely focused, and can be matched into a following accelerator lattice. Thus, this setup is the prototype injector into a scalable DLA based on Alternating Phase Focusing (APF).
Dielectric laser acceleration is a versatile scheme to accelerate and control electrons with the help of femtosecond laser pulses in nanophotonic structures. We demonstrate here the generation of a train of electron pulses with individual pulse durations as short as $270pm80$ attoseconds(FWHM), measured in an indirect fashion, based on two subsequent dielectric laser interaction regions connected by a free-space electron drift section, all on a single photonic chip. In the first interaction region (the modulator), an energy modulation is imprinted on the electron pulse. During free propagation, this energy modulation evolves into a charge density modulation, which we probe in the second interaction region (the analyzer). These results will lead to new ways of probing ultrafast dynamics in matter and are essential for future laser-based particle accelerators on a photonic chip.
The spectroscopic techniques for time-resolved fine analysis of matter require coherent X-ray radiation with femtosecond duration and high average brightness. Seeded free-electron lasers (FELs), which use the frequency up-conversion of an external seed laser to improve temporal coherence, are ideal for providing fully coherent soft X-ray pulses. However, it is difficult to operate seeded FELs at a high repetition rate due to the limitations of present state-of-the-art laser systems. Here, we report the novel self-modulation method for enhancing laser-induced energy modulation, thereby significantly reducing the requirement of an external laser system. Driven by this scheme, we experimentally realize high harmonic generation in a seeded FEL using an unprecedentedly small energy modulation. An electron beam with a laser-induced energy modulation as small as 1.8 times the slice energy spread is used for lasing at the 7th harmonic of a 266-nm seed laser in a single-stage high-gain harmonic generation (HGHG) setup and the 30th harmonic of the seed laser in a two-stage HGHG setup. The results mark a major step towards a high-repetition-rate, fully coherent X-ray FEL.
An enhanced ionization injection scheme using a tightly focused laser pulse with intensity near the ionization potential to trigger the injection process in a mismatched pre-plasma channel has been proposed and examined via multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The core idea of the proposed scheme is to lower the energy spread of trapped beams by shortening the injection distance. We have established theory to precisely predict the injection distance, as well as the ionization degree of injection atoms/ions, electron yield and ionized charge. We have found relation between injection distance and laser and plasma parameters, giving a strategy to control injection distance hence optimizing beams energy spread. In the presented simulation example, we have investigated the whole injection and acceleration in detail and found some unique features of the injection scheme, like multi-bunch injection, unique longitudinal phase-space distribution, etc. Ultimate electron beam has a relative energy spread (rms) down to 1.4% with its peak energy 190 MeV and charge 1.7 pC. The changing trend of beam energy spread indicates that longer acceleration may further lower the energy spread down to less than 1%, which may have potential in applications related to future coherent light source driven by laser-plasma accelerators.
We present measurements of slice energy spread at the injector section of the European X-Ray Free Electron Laser for an electron bunch with charge of 250 pC. Two methods considered in the paper are based on measurements at the dispersive section after a transverse deflecting structure (TDS). The first approach uses measurements at different beam energies. We show that with a proper scaling of the TDS voltage with the beam energy the rms error of the measurement is less than 0.3 keV for the energy spread of 6 keV. In the second approach we demonstrate that keeping the beam energy constant but adjusting only the optics we are able to simplify the measurement complexity and to reduce the rms error below 0.1 keV. The accuracy of the measurement is confirmed by numerical modelling including beam transport effects and collective beam dynamics of the electron beam. The slice energy spread measured at the European XFEL for the beam charge of 250 pC is nearly 3 times lower as the one reported recently at SwissFEL for the same cathode material and the beam charge of 200 pC.
Beam quality preservation during transport of high-brightness electron beams is of general concern in the design of modern accelerators. Methods to manage incoherent synchrotron radiation (ISR) have been in place for decades; as beam brightness has improved coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) and the microbunching instability (uBI) have emerged as performance limitations. We apply the compensation analysis of diMitri, Cornacchia, and Spampinati - as previously used by Borland - to the design of transport systems for use with low-emittance beams, and find that appropriately configured second order achromats will suppress transverse emittance growth due to CSR and appear to limit uBI gain.