Progress towards BELLA Center's Laser-Plasma Accelerator based Free Electron Laser

ORAL

Abstract

Soft X-rays are a highly desired tool for novel experiments in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences. At the BELLA Center, we are pursuing the technology for a Laser-Plasma Accelerator (LPA) driven free-electron laser (FEL). A new dedicated 100TW-class laser system now delivers pulses of 2.5J and 40 fs duration (at 5 Hz repetition). After an upgrade with a deformable mirror, we are now routinely producing electron beams at the 100-200 MeV level. In this presentation we will describe our LPA FEL facility, including the advanced electron beam transport line to the 4-meter long strong-focusing VISA undulator. Transport and manipulation devices include a permanent quadrupole triplet, several steering magnets, an electro-magnetic triplet, a magnetic chicane to decompress the electron beam, a mid-line magnetic spectrometer, and a diagnostic chamber. Our simulations indicate that FEL gain should be observed by decompressing the few-femtesecond few-{\%} energy spread beams with the chicane. The FEL diagnostics and recent results will be presented.

*Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AC02-05CH11231), National Science Foundation (PHY-1632796), the U.S. DOE National Nuclear Security Administration, Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation R\&D (NA22), and Gordon \& Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF4898).

–

Authors

  • Fumika Isono

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA

  • Jeroen Van Tilborg

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Sam Barber

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Anton Matsson

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Joseph Natal

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Cameron Geddes

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Hai-En Tsai

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Tobias Ostermayr

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Carl Schroeder

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Wim Leemans

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Eric Esarey

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory