The Next Generation Light Source will deliver high (MHz) repetition rate electron beams to an array of free electron lasers. Because of the significant average current in such a facility, effective beam collimation is extremely important to minimize radiation damage to undulators, prevent quenches of superconducting cavities, limit dose rates outside of the accelerator tunnel and prevent equipmentdamage. This paper describes the early conceptual design of a collimation system, as well as initial results of simulations to test its effectiveness.

A high repetition rate, MHz-class, high-brightness electron source is a key element in future high-repetition-rate x-ray free electron laser-based light sources. The VHF-gun, a novel low frequency radio-frequency gun, is the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) response to that need. The gun design is based on a normal conducting, single cell cavity resonating at 186 MHz in the VHF band and capable of continuous wave operation while still delivering the high accelerating fields at the cathode required for the high brightness performance. The VHF-gun was fabricated and successfully commissioned in the framework of the Advanced Photo-injector EXperiment, an injector built at LBNL to demonstrate the capability of the gun to deliver the required beam quality. The basis for the selection of the VHF-gun technology, novel design features, and fabrication techniques are described.

The development of undulator technologies capable of generating sub-cm undulator periods is assuming an increasing importance in X-ray free electron laser (FEL) applications. Indeed, such devices jointly with the high brightness electron beams already demonstrated at operating facilities would allow for lower energy, more compact electron linacs with a beneficial impact on the size and cost of X-ray FEL facilities. A novel design super-conducting undulator is being developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) with the potential of sub-cm periods with reasonably large undulator parameter and gap. The potential and capability of such undulator technology need to be experimentally demonstrated. In this paper, the possibility of constructing an infrared FEL by combining the new undulator with the high brightness beam from the APEX injector facility at LBNL is investigated. Calculations show that the resulting FEL, when operated in self-amplified-spontaneous-emission mode, is expected to deliver a saturated power of almost a MW within a ∼4m undulator length, in a single-spike of coherent radiation at ∼2μm wavelength. It will be also shown that the small-period of the undulator associated with the relatively low energy of the APEX beam, forces the FEL to operate in a regime with unusual and interesting characteristics. The alternative option of laser seeding the FEL is also briefly examined, showing the potential to reduce the saturation length even further. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

We report on the possibility of constructing an infrared FEL by combining a novel design super-conducting undu-lator developed at LBNL with the high brightness beam from the APEX injector facility. Calculations show that the resulting FEL is expected to deliver a saturated power of over a MW within a ∼4 m undulator length when operating in Self-Amplified-Spontaneus-Emission mode, with a single-spike of coherent radiation at ∼ 2 μm wavelength. The sub-cm undulator periods, associated with the relatively low energy of the APEX beam (20-25 MeV), forces the FEL to operate in a regime with unusual and interesting characteristics. The alternative option of laser seeding the FEL is also briefly examined, showing the potential to reduce the saturation length even further.

The past decade was characterized by an increasing scientific demand for extending towards higher repetition rates (MHz class and beyond) the performance of already operating lower repetition rate accelerator-based instruments such as x-ray free electron lasers (FELs) and ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) and microscopy (UEM) instruments. Such a need stimulated a worldwide spread of a vibrant R&D activity targeting the development of high-brightness electron sources capable of operating at these challenging rates. Among the different technologies pursued, rf guns based on room-temperature structures resonating in the very high frequency (VHF) range (30-300 MHz) and operating in continuous wave successfully demonstrated in the past few years the targeted brightness and reliability. Nevertheless, recently proposed upgrades for x-ray FELs and the always brightness-frontier applications such as UED and UEM are now requiring a further step forward in terms of beam brightness in electron sources. In this paper, we present a few possible upgrade paths that would allow one to extend, in a relatively simple and cost-effective way, the performance of the present VHF technology to the required new goals.