Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 445 (2000) 160}163

Status and initial commissioning of a high gain 800 nm

SASE FEL
A. Tremaine *, P. Frigola , A. Murokh , P. Musumeci , C. Pellegrini ,
J. Rosenzweig , M. Babzien
, I. Ben-Zvi
, E. Johnson
, R. Malone
,
G. Rakowsky
, J. Skaritka
, X.J. Wang
, L.H. Yu
, K.A. Van Bibber, J.M. Hill,
G.P. Le Sage, R. Carr, M. Cornacchia, H.-D. Nuhn, R. Ruland, D.C. Nguyen
University of California, 405 Higard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

BNL, Upton, NY 11973, USA
LLNL, Livermore, CA 94551, USA
SLAC, Stanford, CA 94720, USA
LANL, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA

Abstract

We describe the status and initial commissioning of the Visible to Infrared SASE Ampli"er (VISA) experiment. VISA
uses a strong focusing 4 m undulator, the Brookhaven National Laboratory ATF linac with an energy of 72 MeV, and
a photoinjector electron source. The VISA fundamental radiation wavelength is near 800 nm and the power expected at
saturation is near 60 MW. Power, angular and spectral measurements are planned for the VISA radiation and these
results will be analyzed and compared with SASE FEL theory and computer simulation. In addition, the induced
electron beam micro-bunching will be measured using coherent transition radiation.  2000 Published by Elsevier
Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: SASE; FEL; Saturation; Strong focussing; Undulator

1. Introduction fully, and in good agreement with the theoretical

SASE FELs have been proposed to generate
high power, coherent X-rays during the 1980s [1].
During the last few years SASE FELs with very
large single pass gains have been operated success-
* Corresponding author. Building 725, Brookhaven Ave.,
Brookhaven National Laboratory, NY 11973, USA. Tel.:
#516-344-2505; fax: #516-344-3029.
E-mail address: tremaine@physics.ucla.edu (A. Tremaine).
predictions, in the IR region of the spectrum [2].
A project to build a 1.5 As SASE FEL based on
the SLAC linac, the LCLS, has been studied in
detail [3]. This study has established the technical
feasibility of the LCLS. The successful experimental
demonstration of SASE FELs, and the LCLS
design study are leading to an increasing interest in
this novel X-ray radiation source. Initial funding
for the LCLS has been recently awarded, and the
project is now in the initial R&D stage. VISA is
part of the LCLS R&D, and its goal is to verify

0168-9002/00/$ - see front matter  2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 8 - 9 0 0 2 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 5 5 - 3
 A. Tremaine et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 445 (2000) 160}163 161

aspects of SASE FEL physics and technology
which have not yet been tested, like saturation,
transverse mode structure, and use of a strong
focusing undulator. The VISA experiment is
a SASE FEL designed to reach saturation at an
800 nm fundamental wavelength, with a peak
power of about 60 MW, using a 4 m long strong
focusing undulator. The VISA SASE FEL will be
provided with all the instrumentation needed to
make a detailed comparison of the experimental
data with SASE FEL theory and simulation codes.
2. Experimental setup
dulator in a FODO lattice design with a period of
24.75 cm giving four FODO cells per 1 m undula-
tor section and an electron beam beta-function of
30 cm. Use of strong focusing decreases the gain
length by up to 40% compared to a natural focus-
ing scheme.
Using a pulse-wire technique [7], the electron
trajectory through the undulator can be character-
ized and modi"ed. Fig. 2 shows the electron
trajectory [8] using this technique after shimming
magnets have been installed to correct for traject-
ory walk-o!. Simulations [9] have shown that
in order to achieve high gain at VISA, the electron
beam and co-propagating SASE FEL radiation

VISA will be installed at the ATF [4] in BNL.

The electron source is a 1.6 cell S-band photoinjec-
tor with an emittance compensating solenoid.
A separate klystron powers two 3 m traveling wave
linac sections after which the electron beam has an
energy greater than 70 MeV. A matching section
including two additional quadrupoles, beam posi-
tion and pro"le monitors has been added to the
VISA beamline providing the proper electron beam
matching conditions to the undulator given in
Table 1 and needed by the undulator to achieve
high gain.
The VISA undulator [5] is a strong focusing 4 m
planar permanent magnet Halbach design; the
parameters are given in Table 1 and a cross section
of the undulator is shown in Fig. 1. Dipole magnets
with vertically oriented "elds are put on either side
Fig. 1. Cross section view of the VISA undulator. Shown are the
of the gap to provide strong quadrupole focusing dipole magnets along with the quadrupole magnet array
[6]. These quadrupoles are arranged along the un- (FODO) which provides strong focusing. The electron beam
comes out of the page.

Table 1
VISA experimental design parameters including output radi-
ation, electron beam requirements, and undulator parameters

Peak power (saturation) 60 MW

Wavelength 800 nm
Electron beam energy 71 MeV
Peak current 200 A
Normalized emittance 2 mm mrad
Bunch length (FWHM) (10 ps
Undulator period 1.8 cm
On axis "eld 0.75 T Fig. 2. Electron trajectory using the pulse wire technique. Un-
1D FEL parameter 0.0085 dulator Sections 2 and 3 after shimming magnets have been
Field gain length 0.35 m installed for trajectory straightness and joint mismatch between
the two sections. Courtesy of George Rakowsky.

SECTION II.
162 A. Tremaine et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 445 (2000) 160}163
must remain within an rms beam diameter, 50 lm,
of each other throughout the undulator. This puts
very rigid requirements on the measurements and
alignment of the undulator. It has been tested [8]
and found that the undulator magnetic centerline
can be determined to within 20 lm. This centerline
position is transferred relative to "ducials on the
undulator body to an accuracy within 35 lm. These
"ducials are then used to align the four 1 m sections
together. Adding these errors in quadrature, we
have set the requirement on aligning the four 1 m
sections to be within 30 lm. To do this, a laser
interferometric alignment system [10] has been de-
veloped in which these strict alignment tolerances
can be reached
Eight steering magnets and diagnostic pop-in
ports are evenly spaced (by 50 cm) down the length
of the undulator. The steering might be necessary
to help propagate the electron beam through the
4 m and prevent electron beam walk-o!. Each ac-
tuated diagnostic port has two functions [11]. In
one actuator position, a YAG screen and a peri-
scope light transport will be used for electron beam
position and pro"le measurements. In addition, the
actuator pop-in can also be set to independently
collect the SASE radiation, thus allowing measure-
ments of gain and other radiation parameters along
the undulator. The SASE radiation collected by the
pop-ins or at the undulator exit will be transported
13.5 m from the VISA undulator in the experi-
mental hall to the FEL diagnostics room. An op-
tical transport system with a transport matrix of
unity, M"1, is designed to give point to point
optical transport from the undulator to the diag-
nostic bench in the FEL room. This setup gives
VISA the ability to make accurate electron beam
pro"le and SASE radiation measurements versus
distance along the undulator.
3. Proposed measurements
Since the fundamental harmonic of the SASE
radiation will be 800 nm, a wide variety of detectors
is available for the experiment, such as silicon based
laser joulemeters. In addition, CCD cameras are
sensitive to this radiation wavelength, giving the
ability to study the angular spectral characteristics.
Monochrometers and spectrometers are available
and can be readily installed in the FEL diagnostics
room for radiation line spectrum measurements.
The exponential gain of this SASE FEL is easily
studied by the pop-in diagnostic array imple-
mented along the length of the undulator. After the
radiation is transported to the diagnostics room,
we can make absolute energy and radiation line
and angular spectral measurements for the eight
positions along the undulator. Approximately
20 cm past the undulator's last period, a thin con-
ducting foil will be used to measure the SASE
induced longitudinal electron beam micro-bunch-
ing using coherent transition radiation [12].
A Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (FROG)
system is being built which will have a time resolu-
tion of 50 fs enabling the details of a SASE pulse to
be temporally pro"led. There should be enough
resolution to see SASE spiking and with the eight
diagnostic ports along the length of the undulator,
the time evolution and development of SASE start
up can be studied.
The data extracted from the VISA experiment
will be compared to simulation codes. It is neces-
sary to benchmark SASE FEL codes in order to
determine how reliably these codes can predict the
SASE FEL process.
4. Conclusion
The completion of the undulator magnetic char-
acterization is scheduled for early October at which
time the system will be installed in the ATF experi-
mental hall. The initial results for the system are
then expected in November 1999. A full set of
measurements described above is expected in late
spring, 2000.
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