A conceptual design is presented of a novel energy-recovering linac (ERL) facility for the development and application of the energy recovery technique to linear electron accelerators in the ...multi-turn, large current and large energy regime. The main characteristics of the powerful energy recovery linac experiment facility (PERLE) are derived from the design of the Large Hadron electron Collider, an electron beam upgrade under study for the LHC, for which it would be the key demonstrator. PERLE is thus projected as a facility to investigate efficient, high current (HC) (>10 mA) ERL operation with three re-circulation passages through newly designed SCRF cavities, at 801.58 MHz frequency, and following deceleration over another three re-circulations. In its fully equipped configuration, PERLE provides an electron beam of approximately 1 GeV energy. A physics programme possibly associated with PERLE is sketched, consisting of high precision elastic electron-proton scattering experiments, as well as photo-nuclear reactions of unprecedented intensities with up to 30 MeV photon beam energy as may be obtained using Fabry-Perot cavities. The facility has further applications as a general technology test bed that can investigate and validate novel superconducting magnets (beam induced quench tests) and superconducting RF structures (structure tests with HC beams, beam loading and transients). Besides a chapter on operation aspects, the report contains detailed considerations on the choices for the SCRF structure, optics and lattice design, solutions for arc magnets, source and injector and on further essential components. A suitable configuration derived from the here presented design concept may next be moved forward to a technical design and possibly be built by an international collaboration which is being established.
A new kind of nonresonant optical recirculator, dedicated to the production of γ rays by means of Compton backscattering, is described. This novel instrument, inspired by optical multipass systems, ...has its design focused on high flux and very small spectral bandwidth of the γ-ray beam. It has been developed to fulfill the project specifications of the European Extreme Light Infrastructure "Nuclear Pillar," i.e., the Gamma Beam System. Our system allows a single high power laser pulse to recirculate 32 times synchronized on the radio frequency driving accelerating cavities for the electron beam. Namely, the polarization of the laser beam and crossing angle between laser and electrons are preserved all along the 32 passes. Moreover, optical aberrations are kept at a negligible level. The general tools developed for designing, optimizing, and aligning the system are described. A detailed simulation demonstrates the high efficiency of the device.
The optimization and advanced study of a laser-plasma electron injector are presented based on a truncated ionization injection scheme for high quality beam production. The smilei code is used with ...laser envelope approximation and a low number of particles per cell to reach computation time performances enabling the production of a large number of accelerator configurations. The developed and tested workflow is a possible approach for the production of a large dataset for laser-plasma accelerator optimization. A selection of functions of merit used to grade generated electron beams is discussed. Among the significant number of configurations, two specific working points are presented in detail. All data generated are left open to the scientific community for further study and optimization.
For the first time, a diamond sensor was operated for the characterisation of a high average-intensity gamma-ray beam. Data was collected for gamma beam energies between 2 and 7MeV, at the HIγS ...facility of TUNL. The nanosecond-fast resolution of diamond detectors is exploited to distinguish bunches of gamma rays 16.8ns apart. It allows a precise direct determination of the time-structure of the gamma beam. The strong potential of such a detector for precise absolute flux, position and polarisation measurements is exposed. It is thus shown that diamond detectors are a decisive and unique tool for the detailed characterisation of upcoming gamma sources, such as ELI-NP and HIγS-2.
•First operation of a diamond sensor for the characterisation of a beam of photons.•Clear distinction of photon bunches separated by 16.8ns.•Polarisation measurements possible through beam shape evaluation.•Essential diagnostic tool for ELI-NP machine.
A new method of laser frequency stabilization using polarization property of an optical cavity is proposed. In a standard Fabry–Perot cavity, the coating layers thickness of cavity mirrors is ...calculated to obtain the same phase shift for s- and p-wave but a slight detuning from the nominal thickness can produce s- and p-wave phase detuning. As a result, each wave accumulates a different round-trip phase shift and resonates at a different frequency. Using this polarization property, an error signal is generated by a simple setup consisting of a quarter wave-plate rotated at 45°, a polarizing beam splitter and two photodiodes. This method exhibits similar error signal as the Pound–Drever–Hall technique but without need for any frequency modulation. Lock theory and experimental results are presented in this paper.
We report and discuss high-flux generation of circularly polarized γ-rays by means of Compton scattering. The γ-ray beam results from the collision of an external-cavity-enhanced infrared laser beam ...and a low emittance relativistic electron beam. By operating a non-planar bow-tie high-finesse optical Fabry-Perot cavity coupled to a storage ring, we have recorded a flux of up to (3.5 ± 0.3) × 10
photons per second with a mean measured energy of 24 MeV. The γ-ray flux has been sustained for several hours. In particular, we were able to measure a record value of up to 400 γ-rays per collision in a full bandwidth. Moreover, the impact of Compton scattering on the electron beam dynamics could be observed resulting in a reduction of the electron beam lifetime correlated to the laser power stored in the Fabry-Perot cavity. We demonstrate that the electron beam lifetime provides an independent and consistent determination of the γ-ray flux. Furthermore, a reduction of the γ-ray flux due to intrabeam scattering has clearly been identified. These results, obtained on an accelerator test facility, warrant potential scaling and revealed both expected and yet unobserved effects. They set the baseline for further scaling of the future Compton sources under development around the world.
We present a start to end (s2e) simulation of the Laser-plasma Wakefield Accelerator (LPWA) foreseen as the ESCULAP project. We use a photo injector to produce a 5MeV 10pC electron bunch with a ...duration of ∼ 1 ps RMS, it is boosted to 10MeV by a S-band cavity and then compressed to 74 fs RMS (30 fs FWHM) by a magnetic compression chicane (dogleg). After the dogleg, a quadrupole doublet and a triplet are utilized to match the Twiss parameters before injecting into the subsequent plasma wakefield. A 40 TW laser is used to excite plasma wakefield in the 10 cm plasma cell. An optimized configuration has been determined yielding at the plasma exit an electron beam at 180 MeV with energy spread of ∼ 4.2%, an angular divergence of 0.6 mrad and a duration of 4 fs.
In this manuscript we review the challenges of Compton backscattering sources in advancing photon beam performances in the 1 – 20 MeV energy range, underlining the design criteria bringing to maximum ...spectral luminosity and briefly describing the main achievements in conceiving and developing new devices (multi-bunch RF cavities and Laser recirculators) for the case of ELI-NP Gamma Beam System (ELI-NP-GBS).
Experimental results of a two-stage Ni-like Ag soft X-ray laser operated in a seed-amplifier configuration are presented. Both targets were pumped applying the double-pulse grazing incidence ...technique with intrinsic travelling wave excitation. The injection of the seed X-ray laser into the amplifier target was realized by a spherical mirror. The results show amplification of the seed X-ray laser and allow for a direct measurement of the gain lifetime. The experimental configuration is suitable for providing valuable input for computational simulations.
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