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We describe the experimental observation of highly nonlinear energy striations generated by two lasers in a relativistic electron beam in an echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG) setup. The rich energy banding structure results from strong dispersion of the sinusoidally modulated beam, and measurements of the banding spectrum enable benchmarking, optimization, and characterization of the concomitant EEHG process. Results are found to be in good agreement with theory, and suggest that the presented technique can facilitate the practical implementation of EEHG to generate intense, fully coherent light in future advanced accelerator-based light sources.

We report on experimental studies on the harmonic interaction between an optical laser and a relativistic electron beam in an undulator up to the 15th order. In this experiment, a significant energy modulation is imprinted on the beam longitudinal phase space through the electron-laser interaction when the laser frequency is the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th or 15th harmonic of the fundamental resonant frequency of the undulator. The experimental results are in good agreement with theory, and indicate that high harmonic interactions in undulators with large $K$ values and small phase errors can be quite efficient. The results confirm the basic physics of harmonic interaction with a goal toward ushering forward the development of many high harmonic based applications in free-electron lasers.

A weak vertical coupled-bunch instability with oscillation amplitude of the order of a few $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ has been observed in SPEAR3 at nominal vacuum pressure. The instability becomes stronger with increasing neutral gas pressure as observed by turning off vacuum pumps, and becomes weaker when the vertical beam emittance is increased. These observations indicate that the vertical beam motion is driven by ions trapped in the periodic potential of the electron beam. In this paper we present a series of comprehensive beam measurements, impedance-based stability analysis, and numerical simulations of beam-ion interactions in SPEAR3. The effects of vacuum pressure, gas species, beam current, bunch fill pattern, chromaticity, and vertical beam emittance are investigated.

A design for an $X$-band rf photoinjector that was developed jointly by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is presented. The photoinjector is based around a 5.59 cell rf gun that has state-of-the-art features including: elliptical contoured irises; improved mode separation; an optimized initial half cell length; a racetrack input coupler; and coupling that balances pulsed heating with cavity fill time. Radio-frequency and beam dynamics modeling have been done using a combination of codes including PARMELA, HFSS, IMPACT-T, ASTRA, and the ACE3P suite of codes developed at SLAC. The impact of lower gradient operation, magnet misalignment, solenoid multipole errors, beam offset, mode beating, wakefields, and beam line symmetry have been analyzed and are described. Fabrication and testing plans at both LLNL and SLAC are discussed.

After the successful operation of the Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) and the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), soft and hard x-ray free electron lasers (FELs) are being built, designed, or proposed at many accelerator laboratories. Acceleration employing lower frequency rf cavities, ranging from $L$-band to $C$-band, is usually adopted in these designs. In the first stage bunch compression, higher-frequency harmonic rf system is employed to linearize the beam's longitudinal phase space, which is nonlinearly chirped during the lower frequency rf acceleration process. In this paper, a hard x-ray FEL design using an all $X$-band accelerator at 11.424 GHz (from photocathode rf gun to linac end) is presented, without the assistance of any harmonic rf linearization. It achieves LCLS-like performance at low charge using $X$-band linac drivers, which is more versatile, efficient, and compact than ones using $S$-band or $C$-band rf technology. It employs initially 42 microns long (rms), low-charge (10 pC) electron bunches from an $X$-band photoinjector. An overall bunch compression ratio of roughly 100 times is proposed in a two stage bunch compressor system. The start-to-end macroparticle 3D simulation employing several computer codes is presented in this paper, where space charge, wakefields, and incoherent and coherent synchrotron radiation effects are included. Employing an undulator with a short period of 1.5 cm, a Genesis FEL simulation shows successful lasing at a wavelength of 0.15 nm with a pulse length of 2 fs and a power saturation length as short as 20 meters, which is equivalent to LCLS low-charge mode. Its overall length of both accelerators and undulators is 180 meters (much shorter than the effective LCLS overall length of 1230 meters, including an accelerator length of 1100 meters and an undulator length of 130 meters), which makes it possible to be built in places where only limited space is available.

We numerically study properties of primary dark currents in an $X$-band accelerating structure. For the H60VG3 structure considered for the Next Linear Collider (NLC) we first perform a fairly complete (with some approximations) calculation of dark-current trajectories. These results are used to study properties of the dark current leaving the structure. For example, at accelerating gradient of $65\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MV}/\mathrm{m}$, considering two very different assumptions about dark-current emission around the irises, we find that the fraction of emitted current leaving the structure to be a consistent $\ensuremath{\sim}1%$. Considering that $\ensuremath{\sim}1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mA}$ outgoing dark current is seen in measurement, this implies that $\ensuremath{\sim}100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mA}$ (or 10 pC per period) is emitted within the structure itself. Using the formalism of the Li\'enard-Wiechert potentials, we then perform a systematic calculation of the transverse kick of dark currents on a primary linac bunch. The result is $\ensuremath{\sim}1\text{ }\mathrm{V}$ kick per mA (or per $0.1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{pC}$ per period) dark current emitted from an iris. For an entire structure we estimate the total kick on a primary bunch to be $\ensuremath{\sim}15\text{ }\mathrm{V}$. For the NLC linac this translates to a ratio of (final) vertical beam offset to beam size of about 0.2. However, with the assumptions that needed to be made\char22{}particularly the number of emitters and their distribution within a structure\char22{}the accuracy of this result may be limited to the order of magnitude.

Future linear colliders may require a nonzero crossing angle between the two beams at the interaction point (IP). This requirement in turn implies that the beams will pass through the strong interaction region solenoid with an angle, and thus that the component of the solenoidal field perpendicular to the beam trajectory is nonzero. The interaction of the beam and the solenoidal field in the presence of a crossing angle will cause optical effects not observed for beams passing through the solenoid on axis; these effects include dispersion, deflection of the beam, and synchrotron radiation effects. For a purely solenoidal field, the optical effects which are relevant to luminosity exactly cancel at the IP when the influence of the solenoid's fringe field is taken into account. Beam size growth due to synchrotron radiation in the solenoid is proportional to the fifth power of the product of the solenoidal field, the length of the solenoid, and the crossing angle. Examples based on proposed linear collider detector solenoid configurations are presented.

In this paper, we present a series of analytic expressions to predict the beam dynamics in a long linear accelerator. These expressions can be used to model the linac optics, calculate the magnitude of the wakefields, estimate the emittance dilution due to misaligned accelerator components, and estimate the stability and jitter limitations. The analytic expressions are based on the results of simple physics models and are useful to understand the parameter sensitivities. They are also useful when using simple codes or spreadsheets to optimize a linac system.

Beam based alignment of quadrupoles by variation of quadrupole strength is a widely-used technique in accelerators today. The authors describe the dominant systematic limitation of this technique, which arises from the change in the center position of the quadrupole as the strength is varied, and derive expressions for the resulting error. In addition, the authors derive an expression for the statistical resolution of such techniques in a periodic transport line, given knowledge of the line's transport matrices, the resolution of the beam position monitor system, and the details of the strength variation procedure. These results are applied to the Next Linear Collider main linear accelerator, an 11 kilometer accelerator containing 750 quadrupoles and 5,000 accelerator structures. The authors find that in principle a statistical resolution of 1 micron is easily achievable but the systematic error due to variation of the magnetic centers could be several times larger.