BNL - 67738

Intra-Undulator Measurements at VISA FEL

A. Murokh, P. Frigola, C. Pellegrini, J. Rosenzweig, A. Tremaine

UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy
P.O. Box 951547
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547

E. Johnson, X.J. Wang, V. Yakimenko

National Synchrotron Light Source
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, NY 11973-5000

L. Klaisner, H.-D. Nuhn

SLAC
Stanford, CA 94720

A. Toor
LLNL
Livermore, CA 94551

August 2000

National Synchrotron Light Source

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Operated by
Brookhaven Science Associates
Upton, NY 11973

Under Contract with the United States Department of Energy

Contract Number DE-AC02-98CH10886
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 Intra-Undulator Measurements at VISA FEL
A. Murokh•, P. Frigola, C. Pellegrini, J. Rosenzweig, A. Tremaine, UCLA
E. Johnson, X. J. Wang, V. Yakimenko, BNL
L. Klaisner, H. D. Nuhn, SLAC
A. Toor, LLNL
UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy, P.O. Box 951547, Los
Angeles, CA 90095-1547
We describe a diagnostics system developed, to measure exponential gain properties and the
electron beam dynamics inside the strong focusing 4-m long undulator for the VISA (Visible to
Infrared SASE Amplifier) FEL. The technical challenges included working inside the small
undulator gap, optimising the electron beam diagnostics in the high background environment of
the spontaneous undulator radiation, multiplexing and transporting the photon beam. Initial
results are discussed.

1. Introduction e-beam

The intra-undulator diagnostics system at the VISA

experiment [1] has a dual purpose: (i) align and
actuator
match the electron beam in the undulator; and (ii)
to measure the FEL radiation properties along the FEL
length of the undulator [2]. While the second task light OTR
remains the experimental objective, it is the first
one that focused most of the attention of the
authors during the initial stage of VISA vacuum
to CCD
chamber
experiment. For the proper characterisation and
optimisation of the FEL process, it is necessary to Figure 1: Intra-undulator diagnostic probes
measure the electron beam trajectory and envelop diagram.
throughout the length of the undulator, and apply a
proper correction (for instance to align the electron and directed into the optical transport line. On the
beam to the undulator axis with the 20 µm opposite side, the inner mirror directs the radiation
accuracy). through the periscope mirror into the imaging
The VISA experiment utilises a strong-focusing system, where the FEL light is being filtered out
undulator [3], with the average electron beam beta- and the OTR from the mirror surface is used to
function of about 30 cm (Table 1). Hence, proper generate an image of the electron beam.
diagnostic technique requires sampling period to be The miniature openings inside the undulator gap
90 cm or less. To accomplish that, the undulator (3.6 mm x 9 mm) put a very stiff limitation on the
vacuum chamber was equipped with 8 diagnostic size of the probe tips. Initially, to maximise the
ports 50 cm apart. OTR and undulator radiation two-sided mirror surface, we built probes with a
probes, alignment lasers, and multiplexing optical marginal thickness of 3.3 mm. In addition to the
transport are the major components of the intra- difficulties with the probe insertion in the undulator
undulator diagnostic system. gap, it turns out that the bellow-coupled vacuum
feedthroughs used to actuate the probes tend to tilt
after the pump-down, and as a result, the probe tip
2. Diagnostic Probes may not clear the opening, which is not acceptable
One of the most challenging parts of the VISA Table 1: Relevant parameters for VISA FEL
experiment was the design and fabrication of the
diagnostic probes. The purpose of the probes is Nominal Beam Energy 71MeV
both to extract an FEL light out of the undulator Charge 1nC
vacuum chamber, and to enable the electron beam
imaging (Fig. 1). When the electron beam path is Undulator Period 1.8 cm
being intercepted by the outer surface of the probe Number of Periods 220
two-sided mirror, the FEL light is being extracted
Average β− Function 30 cm
Radiation Wavelength 800nm
• [email protected]
 Fortunately, linear polarisation and harmonic
spectral structure of the undulator emission allows
to surpress it with respect to the radially polarised
broad band OTR (Fig.2). At the present, the cold
mirror periscope in the imaging optics provides 2
orders of magnitude noise reduction. In the future,
if necessary, we plan to use polarising cubes to
have even smaller fraction of the FEL light to enter
the imaging optics. Another “side-effect” of the
low intensity OTR implementation is that to get a
clear performance the total resolution of the
imaging system had to be changed from 4 µm/pixel
as designed, up to 10 µm/pixel.
Figure 2: OTR image of the VISA beam in
the middle of the undulator
3. Alignment Laser System
for many reasons. Hence, the latest design utilises Once the imaging system operates, the electron
2.3 mm thick probe tips. It is very difficult to beam can be matched into the undulator. Yet, for
polish laser quality mirrors of that size; therefore, the trajectory studies [5], it is necessary to have a
the original copper mirrors were replaced with the reference line. A diode laser system is used to
silicon ones, polished to λ/10. The mirror provide a reference line for the electron beam, and
polishing has been performed at LLNL, and the also to help with the alignment of optical
probe fabrication was done at SLAC and BNL. components.
Another important change in the diagnostic To this end we use a fiber–coupled diode laser at
system is the use of optical transition radiation 632 nm, providing a single mode output, which we
(OTR) for beam imaging, instead of the YAG focus at the middle of the undulator, located 6 m
crystals originally proposed. The experimental away. Even though we are diffraction limited, we
study [4] at ATF (Accelerator Test Facility) can achieve sub-millimeter spot sizes throughout
demonstrated, that the YAG crystal scintillators get the whole length of the undulator. CCD cameras
saturated by the high brightness electron beam on both sides of the undulator are used to monitor
(beam of quality identical to the VISA design and periodically realign the reference laser beam
parameters). As a result, information about the size line. This line is integrated into the interferometric
and shape of electron bunches, which is critical to undulator alignment system [6], to overlap the
analyse the FEL performance, can not be obtained magnetic axis of the undulator. Once aligned, the
from YAG images (Fig. 3), which consistently laser is found to be stable within 20-30 microns
overestimate the beam radius. To avoid this from shot-to-shot. That is less than the typical
problem we have to use OTR diagnostics, which horizontal jitter of the electron beam at the ATF,
provides correct information about the beam which is generally small due to the use of the
transverse profile. However, the OTR has a energy collimator after the linac section [7].
disadvantage of lower intensity. Indeed, the OTR The transport line for the FEL light consists of an
intensity is few orders of magnitude smaller than imaging lens array to multiplex the radiation beam
the undulator radiation within the bandwidth of the extracted from the different diagnostic ports [2].
CCD camera; hence we need to filter the undulator As any system with the large number of optical
radiation in order to obtain a usable OTR image. elements, our optical transport line requires a
narrow band coating (Ti:Sapphire); hence, an
additional diode laser at 780 nm was added for
0.50 mm 0.25 mm
YAG YAG
optical alignment purposes. The two laser lines are
collinear by virtue of a cold mirror.
This work was performed under the DOE
contract No DE-FG03-92ER40693.

OTR 1.20 mm Phosphor REFERENCES

[1] http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/VISA
[2] A. Murokh et al., Proc. of FEL 99, p. II-119 (2000)
1.80 mm [3] G. Rakowski et al., Proc. of PAC 99 (1999)
[4] A. Murokh et al., Submitted to World Scientific
[5] A. Tremaine et al., Same Proceedings
[6] R. Ruland et al., Proc. of FEL 99 (2000)
Figure 3: Images of the same electron beam, [7] X.J. Wang et al., Proc. of PAC 99, p. 3495 (1999)
taken with 4 different methods. Comparison
favours OTR as the diagnostics of the choice.