Optimizing ring-based CSR sources
Coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) is a fascinating phenomenon recently observed in electron storage rings and shows tremendous promise as a high power source of radiation at terahertz frequencies. However, because of the properties of the radiation and the electron beams needed to produce it, there are a number of interesting features of the storage ring that can be optimized for CSR. Furthermore, CSR has been observed in three distinct forms: as steady pulses from short bunches, bursts from growth of spontaneous modulations in high current bunches, and from micro modulations imposed on a bunch from laser slicing. These processes have their relative merits as sources and can be improved via the ring design. The terahertz (THz) and sub-THz region of the electromagnetic spectrum lies between the infrared and the microwave . This boundary region is beyond the normal reach of optical and electronic measurement techniques and sources associated with these better-known neighbors. Recent research has demonstrated a relatively high power source of THz radiation from electron storage rings: coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR). Besides offering high power, CSR enables broadband optical techniques to be extended to nearly the microwave region, and has inherently sub-picosecond pulses. As a result, new opportunities for scientific research and applications are enabled across a diverse array of disciplines: condensed matter physics, medicine, manufacturing, and space and defense industries. CSR will have a strong impact on THz imaging, spectroscopy, femtosecond dynamics, and driving novel non-linear processes. CSR is emitted by bunches of accelerated charged particles when the bunch length is shorter than the wavelength being emitted. When this criterion is met, all the particles emit in phase, and a single-cycle electromagnetic pulse results with an intensity proportional to the square of the number of particles in the bunch. It is this quadratic dependence that can produce colossal intensities even with fairly low beam currents. Until recently CSR has not typically been observed in electron storage rings because the electron bunch lengths are longer than the waveguide cutoff imposed by the dimensions of the vacuum chamber, so full-bunch coherent emission is suppressed. The first observations of CSR from storage rings were of quasi-chaotic bursts of intensity caused by density modulations in unstable electron bunches, similar to the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) used in the design of several proposed free electron lasers. While studies of this ''bursting'' phenomenon have provided glimpses into the powers available with CSR, the unstable nature of the emission makes this a problematic THz source for scientific measurements. We have experimentally verified a model predicting where this unstable bursting regime will occur and have used this experience to design a new source where the bursting instability can be avoided. Stable CSR has been produced during machine experiments at the BESSY-II storage ring and the first scientific measurements using this CSR source were recently reported. This stable CSR emission is not driven by any instability, yet it extends to higher frequencies than predicted by a simple full-bunch coherence model. This model is described in these proceedings and elsewhere. The combination of the experimentally verified models for stable CSR as well as the threshold of which current levels will produce bursting instabilities allows us to fully design and optimize a new CSR source that will produce copious amounts of stable far-IR, THz and sub-THz, synchrotron radiation. CSR has also been recently observed in storage rings as a result of laser slicing of the beams. In this process, interaction of an electron beam with a femtosecond laser pulse co-propagating through a wiggler modulates the electron energies within a short slice of the electron bunch comparable with the duration of the laser pulse. Propagating around an electron storage ring, this bunch develops a longitudinal density perturbation due to the dispersion of electron trajectories. This perturbation emits short pulses of temporally and spatially coherent terahertz pulses that are inherently synchronized to the modulating laser. Although this technique was originally developed for producing ultrashort x-ray pulses, the CSR emission has interesting possibilities as a source. In this paper, we present several of the concepts for optimizing a ring for producing both stable CSR and ultrashort terahertz pulses from laser sliced beams in the context of CIRCE (Coherent InfraRed CEnter), a ring we have proposed which incorporates many of these concepts. Many of these concepts were originally inspired by a compact CSR source described by Murphy et al.. The first section of this paper presents several general considerations for an optimized CSR ring and is followed by details of CIRCE.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Director. Office of Science. Office of Basic EnergySciences, Laboratory Directed Research and DevelopmentProgram
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 900704
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-58401; CBP Note - 747; R&D Project: 455901; TRN: US0702370
- Journal Information:
- International Committee for Future Accelerators BeamDynamics Newsletter, Vol. 35, Issue 27; Related Information: Journal Publication Date: 12/2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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