Inverse Free Electron Laser Experiment at the

Neptune Laboratory
P.Musumecia, C.Pellegrinia, J.B.Rosenzweiga,
A. Varfolomeevb, S.Tolmachevb, T. Yarovoib

Department of Physics, University of California at Los Angeles, 405 HilgardAve, Los Angeles, CA
90095, USA
b
Coherent Radiation Laboratory, RRC"Kurchatov Institute", Moscow 123182, Russia

Abstract. We present an Inverse Free Electron Laser accelerator proposed for construction at the
UCLA Neptune Laboratory. This experiment will use a 1 TW CO2 laser to accelerate through
two strongly tapered undulators an electron beam from 16 MeV up to 55 MeV. The scheme
proposed is the diffraction dominated IFEL interaction. The Raleigh range of the laser beam is
about 2 cm, much shorter than the interaction length (the undulator length is 50 cm). In this
regime adiabatic capture is possible in the first part of the undulator. In the focus region, we
propose a solution to the problem of the dephasing between electrons and photons due to the
Guoy phase shift. Ponderomotive effects and implications for tolerances are also studied

INTRODUCTION
Inverse Free Electron Laser schemes to accelerate particles have been proposed as
advanced accelerators since many years [1-3]. Particular interest in this acceleration
scheme comes from the high gradients in theory available and from the efficient
microbunching of the accelerated electrons. Proof-of-principle IFEL experiments [4-
5], including the staging of two different IFEL sections [6] have been carried out
successfully. Modest energy gain has been achieved mostly because of the limitations
in the radiation power available. A lot of interest is currently in the control of the
longitudinal phase space beam structure: femtosecond microbunches and few percent
energy spread for the particles trapped in the accelerating bucket are theoretically
possible. The purpose of the UCLA experiment is to achieve a substantial energy gain
and investigate the longitudinal structure of the electron beam.
At the Neptune Laboratory at UCLA [7] there is the unique opportunity of having
a high power laser and a relativistic high brightness electron beam in the same
experimental facility. In the proposed scheme, the electron beam is coming from a
photoinjector-booster linac system with energy of 14.0 MeV, and the high power CC>2
laser is focused by a lens (f/18) with focal distance of 2.6 m to tight spot of few
hundreds microns. Because the Raleigh range is much shorter than the undulator
length, the interaction is diffraction dominated [8].
The other fundamental ingredient for the Inverse Free Electron Laser is the
undulator that provides the coupling between photons and electrons. Strong tapering
of both period and magnetic field amplitude is needed for high-gradient acceleration.

CP647, Advanced Accelerator Concepts: Tenth Workshop, edited by C. E. Clayton and P. Muggli
© 2002 American Institute of Physics 0-7354-0102-0/02/$19.00
278
There are strict tolerances requirements on the magnetic field profile and on the
alignment precision in order to maintain phase synchronicity and preserve the
accelerating bucket along the accelerator, especially around the high laser field focal
region. The undulator magnet will be built in collaboration with Kurchatov Institute.

IFEL CONFIGURATION

CO2 laser system

At the Neptune Laboratory a two wavelength 1 TW CO2 laser is currently used to
drive a plasma beat-wave experiment. A standard master oscillator-power amplifier
approach is used to amplify 100 ps pulses up to 100 J as presented elsewhere [9]. The
optics configuration for the IFEL accelerator is designed to provide 400 GW of 10.6
jim CC>2 laser focused to a waist of 350 jim. Radiation diffraction effects are a critical
point in this configuration. The model adequate to describe the CC>2 beam, is to apply
the gaussian beam approximation. The electromagnetic fields driving the interaction
are not constant along the undulator like in the case of plane waves but increase to a
peak at the focus and then decrease back down. Special care in the undulator magnetic
field profile design has to be taken to preserve the synchronicity with the electrons
considering the 180 degrees Guoy phase shift that takes place in a small region around
the focus. Even when this problem is solved with careful undulator magnetic field
shaping, other effects related to the small laser beam size appear. The first study on the
IFEL [10] showed that spatial jitter intrinsic in the optical f/18 configuration together
with ponderomotive scattering effects could seriously degrade the electron
acceleration. The strong laser electric fields at the focus are predicted to kick
transversely the electrons. In order to increase the stability of matching the electron
trajectories and the synchronous phase with the photons in this critical region the laser
beam size was increased to 350 jim. The electromagnetic fields at the focus are
smaller and the transverse kick problem is less critical. Peak accelerating gradient is
lower, but the high field region (-Raleigh range) is longer and substantial energy gain
can still be achieved.

TABLE 1. Laser parameters.

Laser Power 400 GW
Laser wavelength 10.6 urn
Laser waist size(w0) 350 urn
___________Raleigh range________________________3.6 cm_____________

Undulator
In collaboration with Kurchatov Institute we are building a tapered undulator to
provide the necessary synchronism between electrons and photons [11]. The design is
a hybrid permanent magnet planar undulator tapered in both period and magnetic field
amplitude. Ramping up the magnetic field amplitude only is not practical because

279
material
material and
and technology
technology limits
limits in
in the
the achievable
achievable magnetic
magnetic flux
flux are
are quickly reached. At
quickly reached. At
the
the same
same time
time period
period tapering
tapering only
only makes
makes soon
soon the
the undulator too long
undulator too long for
for the
the space
space
available
available in
in the
the experimental
experimental area.
area.

TABLE
TABLE 2.
2. Undulator
Undulator parameters.
parameters.
Initial
Initial Final
Final
Undulator
Undulator period
period 1.5
1.5 cm
cm 5.0 cm
5.0cm
Magnetic
Magnetic field
field amplitude
amplitude 0.12
0.12 TT 0.6
0.6 T
T
KK parameter
parameter 0.2
0.2 2.8
2.8
Gap
Gap 12 mm
12mm 12 mm
12mm

8 Magnetic field in the undulator

2
B(kGauss)

-2

-4

-6

-8
0.0
0.0 0.1
0.1 0.2
0.2 0.3
0.3 0.4
0.4 0.5
0.5
Distance
Distance along
along the
the undulator
undulator (m)
(m)

FIGURE
FIGURE1.
1. Magnetic
Magnetic field
field profile
profile simulated
simulated with
with RADIA.
RADIA.
Beam Centroid Trajectory
Laser Beam size
0.002

0.001
transverse position (m)

0.000

-0.001

-0.002

-0.003

-0.004

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

Distance along
Distance along the undulator
undulator (m)

FIGURE
FIGURE2.
2. Particle
Particle trajectory
trajectory in
in the
the undulator
undulator and
and laser beam size.

Magnetic fields
Magnetic fields are
are specially
specially designed around the focus region to preserve
synchronism with
synchronism with the
the laser
laser light.
light. Undulator parameters are given in Table 2. The
undulator field
undulator field simulations
simulations are
are done
done with the 3-dimensional magnetostatic code
RADIA [12].
RADIA [12].

280
 Y

Figure 3: Model used in RADIA simulation of Kurchatov IFEL undulator. The magnetic field is
tapered in period and amplitude. Note the magnetic corrector in the middle to maintain the resonance
condition in the critical focal region.

Electron beam
To minimize the effects of ponderomotive scattering and more generally to sample
a uniform region in the radiation fields, the electron beam should be focused to a spot
size smaller than the laser beam size. This is possible because the transverse
geometrical emittance of the electron beam is smaller than the one of the laser beam.
The focusing properties of the undulator are negligible because the undulator-induced
(3-function is long. With a quadrupole triplet upstream of the interaction region, we
can focus the beam down to a spot of 150 jim. It is important that the initial electron
beam energy is bigger than 14.0 MeV to satisfy the synchronicity condition at the
beginning of the undulator and optimize the trapping.

TABLE 3. Initial electron beam parameters

Energy 14.0 MeV
Energy spread (rms) 0.5%
Charge 300 pC
Pulse length (rms) 3ps
Rms transverse emittance 10 Jim
Beam size at the focus 150 urn

BEAM DYNAMICS
Analysis of the IFEL performance is performed with the code TREDI [13]. The full
Lorentz equations are solved. It should be noted that the strong period tapering and
violent acceleration bring the approximations used to write the PEL equations
(averaging over one undulator period) for the 1-dimensional IFEL theory to the limit
of validity. For this reason a full Lorentz equation solver like TREDI was chosen to
simulate the experiment.

281
 synchronization
synchronization curve
curve
synchronization curve
0.05
0.05

0.025
0.025

0
0

0.025
0.025

0.05
' 00
0.05
0.05
0.05 0.1
0.1 0.15
0.15 0.2
0.2 0.25
0.25 0.3
0.3 0.35
0.35 0.4
0.4 0.45
0.45 0.5
0.5
0 0.05 0.1 Distance
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
Distancealong
alongthe
theundulator
undulator (m)
(m)
ElectricDistance
field along the undulator (m)
™™"""" Electric field
Electric field
"""" • transverse
transversevelocity
velocity
transverse velocity

FIGURE
FIGURE 4: Resonance curve
curve for
for electrons
FIGURE 4:
4: Resonance
Resonance curve for electrons
electrons
The
The particles are pushed through the analytical
analytical electromagnetic
electromagnetic field of
of aaagaussian
gaussian
The particles
particles are
are pushed
pushed through
through the the analytical electromagnetic field of
field gaussian
mode
mode representing
representing the
the laser
laser beam
beam [14],
[14], and
and through
through the
the 3-dimensional
3-dimensional magnetic
magnetic field
field
mode representing the laser beam [14], and through the 3-dimensional magnetic field
map
map from the code RADIA. Fig.4 shows the synchronization curve for the accelerated
mapfromfrom the
the code
code RADIA.
RADIA. Fig.4Fig.4 shows
shows the synchronization curve
the synchronization curve for
for the
the accelerated
accelerated
electrons.
electrons. Different
electrons. Different
tapering
Different tapering
tapering can
can
can be
be used
used to
be used to improve
to improve one
improve one or
one or the
or
other
the other
the other ofof the
of the
the
characteristics
characteristics
characteristics ofof the
of the accelerating
the accelerating bucket.
accelerating bucket. Energy
bucket. Energy spread and
spread and
Energy spread micro
and micro bunch
micro bunch width
bunch width could
widthcould
could
be
bebeadjusted
adjusteddepending
adjusted depending on
depending on the
on the final
the final application.
final application. In
application. In our
In our case
our case the
case the choice
the choice for
choice tapering
for tapering
for was
tapering waswas
to
totooptimize
optimize the
the trapped
trapped particle
particle fraction.
fraction. The
The characteristics
characteristics of
of the
the
optimize the trapped particle fraction. The characteristics of the output beam from output
output beam
beam from
from
the
theaccelerator
the acceleratorare
accelerator arereported
are reported in
reported in Table
Table 4. 4.
Longitudinal phase space
Longitudinal phase
Longitudinal phase space
space
150
150
150

100
100
gamma
gamma

50
50
50
V *
00
00 22 44 66
4
phase
phase

FIGURE
FIGURE5:
FIGURE 5:longitudinal
5: longitudinal phase
phase space
space at
atthe
at the exit
exit of
exit ofthe
of theundulator
the undulator
undulator

TABLE
TABLE4.
TABLE 4.4. Output
Outputelectron
Output electronbeam
electron beamparameters
beam parameters
parameters
Energy
Energy 55
55 MeV
MeV
Energy 55MeV
Energy
Energyspread
spread 2.5
2.5 %
%
Energy spread 2.5%
Microbunch
Microbunchlength
length(rms)
(rms) 33 fs
fs
Microbunch length (rms) 3fs
Peak
PeakCurrent
Current 33 kA
kA
Peak Current 3kA
µm
10µm
Rms
Rmstransverse
transverseemittance
emittance 10
10
Rms transverse emittance Jim
Trapped
Trapped particles
particles 25 %
Trapped particles__________________ 25%

282
 DIAGNOSTICS
In
In order
order to
to align
align the
the electrons
electrons and and the photons we plan to use screens at the entrance
and
and exit
exit of
of the
the undulator
undulator and and aa pop-in
pop-in screen
screen in
in the
the center.
center. AA fluorescent
fluorescent phosphorous
screen
screen with
with some
some graphite
graphite on on itit so
so that
that intense
intense CO
CO22 cancan produce aa spark,
spark, will be used
for
for detection
detection of of the
the electrons
electrons and and the COCC>22 and to align with the necessary accuracy
both
both beams
beams right
right inin the
the most
most critical
critical point, the focus. The pop-in actuator in the center
of
of the
the undulator
undulator will will have
have aa position
position inin which
which aa small
small sample
sample ofof Germanium
Germanium is is
inserted
inserted in in the
the beam path. Scanning
beam path. Scanning with a delay line the time of arrival of the
electrons
electrons with
with respect
respect to to the
the CO
CC>22 pulse
pulse we
we can
can synchronize
synchronize the two pulses looking
how
how thethe transmission of the CC>22 through the Germanium sample changes depending
the CO
on
on the
the relative
relative timetime of of arrival
arrival of of the
the electrons
electrons andand the
the photons. This effect is the
electron-beam-controlled
electron-beam-controlled transmission
transmission of 10 µm
of 10 jim radiation
radiation inin semiconductors
semiconductors [15]
[15] and
aa cross
cross correlation
correlation timing
timing technique
technique based
based onon it,
it, is
is being
being successfully
successfully applied
applied at
at the
the
Neptune
Neptune lab lab inin the
the context
context of the Plasma Beat Wave accelerator.
The
The output
output beam beam is is microbunched
microbunched with with 1010 µm jim period
period soso that
that any
any radiation
generated
generated by by the
the beam has a spectrum peaked at this wavelength. On the other hand it
will
will bebe very
very hard
hard toto distinguish
distinguish between beam generated radiation and the driving high
power
power CO CC>22 laser
laser beam.
beam. Moreover
Moreover aa transition radiation screen screen cannot be inserted in
the
the beam
beam line
line tootoo close
close to the exit of the undulator because it would be damaged by
the
the high
high power
power driving
driving laser.
laser.

.10 -
a.u.

32
55-10

00 11 22 33 4
Frequency
Frequency (units
(units of
of resonant
resonant frequency)
frequency)
—— Resonant
Resonant particle
particle spectrum
spectrum

FIGURE 6:
FIGURE 6: Calculated
Calculated single
single particle
particle radiation
radiation spectrum
spectrum from
from Kurchatov
Kurchatov tapered IFEL undulator.

The proposed
The proposed solution
solution to
to detect
detect the microbunching is to look at coherent undulator
radiation. This
radiation. This diagnostics
diagnostics looks
looks atat the
the beam structure
structure inside the undulator so that
debunching is
debunching is not
not an
an issue.
issue. The
The expected spectrum
spectrum from resonant electrons is given in
Figure 6.
Figure 6. IfIf we
we integrate
integrate in
in aa reasonable
reasonable collection
collection angle
angle we calculate ~10 nJ of 3.3
µm
jim radiation
radiation on on aa detector
detector 33 mm far
far away
away from the exit of the undulator. The signal
signal for
aa beam
beam microbunched
microbunched on on the
the scale
scale of
of the radiation wavelength is coherent and
proportional to
proportional to the
the square
square of
of the number of electrons.
Finally to
Finally to get
get the
the electron
electron energy
energy spectrum,
spectrum, aa standard
standard imaging
imaging spectrometer
spectrometer will
be used.
be used.

283
 STUDY OF ACCEPTANCES AND TOLERANCES
In the study of the acceptances and tolerances of the accelerator, it was observed that
changing the initial parameters does not affect the maximum final energy reached by
the electrons. Because of the stability of the accelerating region in the phase space, for
small variation of the parameters around the design, some particles will still be trapped
and accelerated to the final energy. The most sensitive parameter is in this case the
number of accelerated electrons. The tolerances refer to cases in which the fraction of
captured particle is bigger than 20%. Table 5 shows the results of this analysis.

TABLE 5. Tolerances of IFEL accelerator.

Energy 14.0 +14.5 MeV
Laser Power 350 n-500 GW
Laser displacement -100 + +100 \\m
Laser angle misalignment__________________________-1 ++1 mrad___________

CONCLUSIONS
The goal of the IFEL project at the UCLA Neptune Laboratory is to achieve a
substantial energy gain (-50 MeV), and to study the longitudinal phase space
characteristics of the output beam. In this sense, it can be considered one of the first
"second generation" advanced accelerator experiment where the main question is not
if the scheme will work in principle, but what can the accelerator deliver in terms of
beam quality and numbers of electrons per bunch. The other important points of the
experiment common to other advanced accelerator experiments are to address the
issue of increasing the interaction length for an high gradient accelerator dealing with
the limitations of laser diffraction and to increase the final energy gain by tapering of
the structure to maintain phase synchronism with the accelerating particles.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank S. Totchisky and C. Clayton for useful discussion. This
work is supported by U.S. Dept. of Energy grant DE-FG03-92ER40693

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