The Los Alamos high-brightness photoinjector

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.42161· OSTI ID:5415132

O'Shea, P G

For a number of years Los Alamos National Laboratory has been developing photocathode RF guns for high-brightness electron beam applications such as free-electron lasers (FELs). Previously thermionic high-voltage guns have been the source of choice for the electron accelerators used to drive FELs. The performance of such FELs is severely limited by the emittance growth produced by the subharmonic bunching process and also by the low peak current of the source. In a photoinjector, a laser driven photocathode is placed directly in a high-gradient RF accelerating cavity. A photocathode allows unsurpassed control over the current, and the spatial and temporal profile of the beam. In addition the electrodeless emission'' avoids many of the difficulties associated with multi-electrode guns, i.e. the electrons are accelerated very rapidly to relativistic energies, and there are no electrodes to distort the accelerating fields. For the past two years we have been integrating a photocathode into our existing FEL facility by replacing our thermionic gun and subharmonic bunchers with a high-gradient 1.3 GHz photoinjector. The photoinjector, which is approximately 0.6 m in length, produces 6 MeV, 300 A, 15 ps linac, and accelerated to a final energy of 40 MeV. We have recently begun lasing at wavelengths near 3 {mu}m. 16 refs., 2 figs., 5 tabs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOD; Department of Defense, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5415132
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-91-2740; CONF-9106260-2; ON: DE91018041
• Resource Relation: Journal Volume: 253; Conference: Symposium on high brightness beams for advanced accelerator applications, College Park, MD (United States), 6-7 Jun 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
42 ENGINEERING
ELECTRON GUNS
PHOTOCATHODES
FREE ELECTRON LASERS
BEAM INJECTION
BEAM EMITTANCE
DESIGN
ELECTRON BEAMS
RF SYSTEMS
BEAMS
CATHODES
ELECTRODES
LASERS
LEPTON BEAMS
PARTICLE BEAMS
430302* - Particle Accelerators- Injection & Extraction Systems
426002 - Engineering- Lasers & Masers- (1990-)