Commissioning experience and beam physics measurements at the SwissFEL Injector Test Facility

Abstract

The SwissFEL Injector Test Facility operated at the Paul Scherrer Institute between 2010 and 2014, serving as a pilot plant and testbed for the development and realization of SwissFEL, the X-ray Free-Electron Laser facility under construction at the same institute. The test facility consisted of a laser-driven rf electron gun followed by an S-band booster linac, a magnetic bunch compression chicane and a diagnostic section including a transverse deflecting rf cavity. It delivered electron bunches of up to 200 pC charge and up to 250 MeV beam energy at a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The measurements performed at the test facility not only demonstrated the beam parameters required to drive the first stage of an FEL facility, but also led to significant advances in instrumentation technologies, beam characterization methods and the generation, transport and compression of ultra-low-emittance beams. We give a comprehensive overview of the commissioning experience of the principal subsystems and the beam physics measurements performed during the operation of the test facility, including the results of the test of an in-vacuum undulator prototype generating radiation in the vacuum ultraviolet and optical range.

arXiv comment60 pages, 70 figures; final version as published, except with table of contents and Fig. 68 in full resolution

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Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Overestimation of thermal emittance in solenoid scans due to coupled transverse motion
• Experimental demonstration of the correction of coupled transverse dynamics aberration in an rf photoinjector
• Nano-Fabricated Free-Standing Wire-Scanners with Sub-Micrometer Resolution
• Bunch Length and Energy Measurements in the Bunch-Compressor of a Free-Electron-Laser
• Quantum Interference in Two-Atom Resonant X-ray Scattering of an Intense Attosecond Pulse