The UCLA IR FEL Project*

G. Baranov 1 , N. Barov2, P. Davis3 , M. Fauver 2 , B. Gitter2, G. Hairapetian3 ,

S. Hartman 2 , M. Hogan 2 , S. Ivanchenkov4, C. Joshi 3 , A. Khlebnikov4, P. Kwok2,
N. Luhmann Jr.3 , S. Park2 , C. Pellegrini2 , J. Rosenzweig2, K. Schenk2 , J. Smolin2,
P. Tran2, G. Travish 2 , A. Varfolomeev4

1 D. V. Efremov Scientific Research Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus, St.

Petersburg, Russia, CIS
2 Particle Beam Physics Lab, Department of Physics, University of California, Los
Angeles, CA 90024, USA
3 Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
90024, USA
4 Laboratory of Coherent Radiation, Russian Science Center, I. V. Kurchatov Institute,
Moscow, Russia, CIS

Abstract
A 10.6 µm Free Electron Laser (FEL) operating in the high gain regime is under
construction at UCLA. FEL physics significant to future short wavelength
operation will be emphasized including optical guiding, superradiance,
saturation and self amplified spontaneous emission (SASE). A 5 MeV RF
photocathode gun illuminated by a UV laser will supply a high brightness
electron beam which will be injected into a Plane Wave Transformer (PWT) Linac
for acceleration to 20 MeV. Recent measurements of the gun emittance as well as
quantum efficiency are presented. The undulator is of a modified hybrid design
producing ~7.5 KG peak field on axis with 5 mm gap spacing and 1.5 cm pole
period. Simulation results which include three-dimensional effects are furnished.
The present status and future plans of the project are summarized.

* Work supported by US DOE Grant No DOE-DE-FG03-92ER40693.

1
 Overview

The Particle Beam Physics Laboratory at UCLA is constructing a short period

FEL which will operate in the high gain regime. The focus of the work thus far
has been the production of a high brightness electron beam suitable for this and
future FELs. The next stage of the project will concern itself with FEL physics; of
primary interest are issues of significance to future short wavelength devices.
Phenomena to be studied include self amplified spontaneous emission (SASE),
superradiance, optical (refractive) guiding and saturation.

A compact high brightness electron source is currently being tested at the UCLA
Department of Physics.[1,2] An S-band RF gun employing a copper
photocathode produces a 4.5 MeV high brightness beam.[3] The copper
photocathode, while easy to handle and robust, requires illumination by a UV
laser. Short (2-50 ps) pulses of UV (266 nm) are produced using a frequency
quadrupled Nd:YAG laser which is pulse compressed.[4] A 5 MeV test stand
complete with beam diagnostics is currently operating. Emittance and quantum
efficiency measurements of the gun are presented in the next section. A drawing
of the test beamline is given in Figure 1.

The complete beamline including the Plane Wave Transformer Linac,[5]

associated optics and experiment insertion region is shown in Figure 2. The
undulator is complete and has been tuned and tested. Further details and
simulation results are presented in subsequent sections. Conclusions and future
plans are discussed in the final section.

The 5 MeV Test Stand

High brightness photocathode guns have great potential as beam sources for
FELs.[6] Characterizing the performance of these devices has been a priority at a
number of institutes. Recent measurements of the UCLA gun have yielded
fruitful results. Dark current, emittance and quantum efficiency have been
measured. These investigations were carried out on a 5 MeV beamline consisting
of the gun, quadrupole triplet, dipole bending magnet and various beam
diagnostics. The present operating parameters are given in Table 1.

Table 1: Measured operating parameters for the UCLA 5 MeV test

stand. The system is operated with single bunches at a repetition
rate up to 5 Hz.
Electron Beam (Measured)
Electron Beam Energy ≤ 5 MeV
Peak Charge ~ 1 nC
Pulse Duration (rms) ~ 50 ps
Normalized Emittance (rms) ~ 12 π mm-mrad

2
The UCLA S-band RF copper photocathode gun has been described in detail
elsewhere.[7] Briefly, the gun is a one and a half cell structure with a high peak
accelerating field (~100 MV/m). Solenoidal focussing is used to control the
highly divergent beam after it exits the gun. Dark current is an issue in this and
other photocathode guns due to the high fields used to control space charge
derived emittance growth. Proper gun conditioning can help reduce dark
current, and measurements of the dark current spectrum are necessary to
quantify the problem. The dark current spectrum as measured for the UCLA gun
after conditioning is given in Figure 3.

Using the scanning quadrupole technique the normalized rms emittance of ~50
ps (rms) beams was measured to be ~12 π mm-mrad. The measured emittance is
expected to go down substantially when shorter pulses (~2 ps rms) are used.
Simulations using the PARMELA code predict an emittance of 5 π mm-mrad for
the 2 ps case.[8] Emittance measurements were made with a 3 MeV beam to
avoid complications by dark current.

The choice of cathode materials has received much attention in the literature.[9]
While materials such as CsSb can offer high quantum efficiency (QE), ease of
manufacturing, they require high vacuum (~1011) and have a limited lifetime. On
the other hand, simple metals such as copper are inexpensive, easy to work with
and rugged, but have poor quantum efficiency (~10 -5). Since copper cathodes
require expensive UV laser illumination, enhancement of the quantum efficiency
is desirable. Currently, the UCLA gun utilizes a removable unpolished copper
cathode. The test stand features two sets of laser ports; one on axis
(perpendicular to the cathode) another at 70° from the axis. Enhancement of the
quantum efficiency by orders of magnitude was predicted for the off axis
illumination.[10]. Preliminary measurments show a QE of 2.7 x 10 -5 on axis and
10.5 x 10-5 at 70° which implies an enhancement ratio of 3.9. This ratio is
substatially smaller than the one predicted by theory; however, these
measurements are preliminary.

In order to preserve the short pulse length (~ few ps), a scheme is now being
devised to "tilt" the pulse appropriately. In this way, the impact of the laser pulse
will be uniform in time across the face of the cathode. Because there are two laser
ports (left and right) at 70° it is also possible to illuminate the cathode
symmetrically. Finally, it has been reported cathode surface finish affects
photoelectron production.[11] Cathodes with various finishes (i.e.
polished,grated, etc.) are currently being produced and will be tested soon.

The 20 MeV Beamline and Undulator

Once characterization of the gun and beam are finished, a 20 MeV beamline
including the PWT Linac will be assembled (see Figure 2). The main beamline as

3
well as a second beamline will contain various beam diagnostics: strip-line
monitors, phosphor screens, cerenkov and optical transition radiation detectors,
faraday cups, etc.. Sucessful operation of the complete beamline will lead to
undulator insertion and FEL operation.

A novel high performance undulator has been constructed for UCLA by the
collaborators at the Kurchatov Institute. The design utilizes Nd-Fe-B blocks in a
hybrid configuration with Vanadium Permedure yokes. In addition, SmCo5
blocks placed between the yokes enhance the pole tip field. The Samarium
Cobalt blocks counter the flux from the Nd-Fe-B magnets within the yokes. Thus,
saturation of the yoke is reduced. At the same time, the blocks enhance the flux
within the pole gaps. In this way a higher field is produced than possible with a
conventional hybrid design.[12] The linear undulator is 60 cm long with a 1.5 cm
period, 5 mm fixed gap spacing and 7.5 KG peak field.

The mechanical assembly allows for precise tuning of the field: a field uniformity
better than ±0.25% has been achieved.[13] The second integral of the undulator
field (along the axis) shows that the electron beam deflection ∆x ≈ 150 µm
satisfies the requirement that it be less that the beam waist σx ≈ 200 µm.

The initial FEL will be configured as a single pass amplifier. Calculations indicate
that the SASE signal will be weak and may be difficult to detect. A pulsed CO2
laser will be used as a seed in order to study saturation effects and simplify
detection. A TEA-CO2 laser with peak power in the megawatt range and
associated optics are being tested for this purpose. In order to preserve
emittance, the electron beam will be sent directly through the undulator: no
bends are present in the beamline before the undulator. This necessitates the use
of a mirror with a hole in it to introduce the seed laser into the beamline.

Table 2: Design parameters for the UCLA FEL. Electron beam

figures are based on siumlation results.
Electron Beam (Simulation)
Electron Beam Energy ~ 20 MeV
Energy Spead (rms) 0.1 %
Peak Current 200 A
Pulse Duration (rms) ~ 2 ps
Normalized Emittance (rms) ~ 5 π mm-mrad
Undulator (Measured)
Undulator Period 1.5 cm
Total Length 60 cm
Pole Face Gap (fixed) 5 mm
Peak Field on axis 7.5 KG
FEL Parameter (ρ) ~1 x 10-2

4
Numerical simulations have been used to determine the FEL's expected
performance. Primarily, Tran and Wurtele's TDA code has been used.[14]
Utilizing the parameters given in Table 2, the code predicts an exponential
power growth length of 8.7 cm. This corresponds to a gain of 103 over the
undulator length. Saturation occurs at ~1.6m with a peak power of ~50 MW. A
plot of the gain as a function of distance down the undulator is given in Figure 4.
Assuming a peak spontaneous noise level of 1.75 W, which corresponds to the
radiation emitted in one gain length of the undulator, then the peak power at
output is 1.7 KW. This low average power necessitates the use of cryogenic
detectors. For this and other reasons it is likely that initial operation will be with
the seed laser. An input power of a few tens of KW is sufficient to saturate the
FEL. Simulation results are summarized in Table 3.

Saturation can not be achieved from SASE with the present undulator. However,
after suitable testing of the first undulator a second undulator will be obtained.
Running as an optical klystron [15] the UCLA FEL will be able to achieve
saturation (or high extraction efficiency) starting from SASE.

Table 3: Simulation results for the UCLA FEL from the TDA code.
Parameters used are as those in Table 2.
FEL (Simulation)
Output Radiation Wavelength 10.6 µm
Power Gain (e-folding) Length 8.7 cm
SASE Saturation Length 160 cm
Peak Power at Saturnation ~ 50 MW
SASE Peak Power Output After 60 cm ~ 1.7 KW

Conclusions and Future Work

The UCLA FEL project has a viable high brightness source to be used in
conjunction with a completed short period undulator. The quantum efficiency
enhancement findings are of significance for high brightness sources in general
and FELs in particular. The enhancement implies that a lower power, and hence
less complex laser system can be used. Alternatively, the additional laser power
can be used to drive a higher current beam.

Once operational, the FEL will be used to study phenomenon of significance to

future short wavelength devices. Due to the lack of suitable mirrors the oscillator
configuration is presently impractical for short wavelengths. Hence, the UCLA
device will operate as an amplifier in the high gain regime. The lack of suitable
sources at various wavelengths makes the feasibility of start up from
spontaneous emission (SASE mode) important.[16] The need to mitigate
diffraction also makes the study optical guiding significant. These phenomenon,
as well as saturation, superradiance and sidebands, will be studied at UCLA.

5
 References and Notes

[1] F. Aghamir, et al. , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A304 pp.155-158 (1991).

[2] J. Dodd, et al.,Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A318 p178 (1992).

[3] J. S. Fraser and R. L. Sheffield, IEEE J, Quant. Elec., 23 p.1489 (1987).

[4] P. Maine, et al., "Generation of Ultrahigh Peak Power Pulses by Chirped Pulse
Amplification," IEEE Jour. of Quan. Elec. 24 2 (1988).

[5] D. A. Swenson, "The Plane-Wave Transformer Linac Structure," Euro. Part.

Accel. Conf., Vol. 2 (Rome,Italy: 1988), ed. S. Tazzari, pp. 1418-1420.

[6] S. Hartman, et al., IEEE 1991 Part. Accel. Conf. Proceedings, p.2967.

[7] J. G. Davis, C. J. Joshi and C. Pellegrini, Intense Microwave & Particle Beams III,
H. E. Brandt. ed. (1992).

[8] L. Young and K. T. McDonald, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices ED-35 p.2052
(1988).

[9] See, for instance, H. Riege, Features and Applications of the New Mehods of
Ferroelectric Emission, Photoemission from Perovskite Ceramics, and Plasma-
Assisted Particle Emission," CLIC-NOTE 105 (Dec.: 1989).

[10] K. L. Kliewer, "Surface Photoeffect for Metal," Phys. Rev. B 14 4, pp.1414-

1428 (1975).

[11] J. Endriz, "Optical and Photoemission Studies of Volume States and Surface
Oscillations in Metals," Stanford Electronics Lab Tech. Report 5207-3 (1970).

[12] K. Halbach, J. de Physique, Colloque C1 (1983).

[13] Here undulator field uniformity is reported as the maximum deviation of the
pole tip fields (on axis) from the mean pole tip field.

[14] T. M. Tran and J. S. Wurtele, Computer Phys. Commun. 54 pp.263-272 (1989)

and T. M. Tran and J. S. Wurtele, Physics Reports 195 pp.1-21 (1990).

[15] J. C. Gallardo and C. Pellegrini, Optics Communcations 77 1 pp.45-48 (1990).

[16] C. Pellegrini, et al., "A 2 to 4 nm High Power FEL on the SLAC LINAC," see
proceedings of this conference.

6
 Figure Captions

Figure 1: The UCLA 5 MeV test stand beamline showing the gun, magnets and
diagnostics. The laser mirror box is used to illuminate the cathode on axis (~3°)
while ports on the gun allow for 70° illumination.

Figure 2: The full UCLA FEL project beamline showing the gun, linac and
experiment inertion area. The second beamline will be used for diagnostics and
other experiments.

Figure 3: The dark current energy spectrum for the UCLA gun.

Figure 4: A plot of the power gain as a function of undulator length for the
UCLA FEL produced by the TDA code. Injection energy for this simulation was
19 MeV with a beam current of 200 Amps.