26–31 Jul 2026
Luskin Conference Center, UCLA
US/Pacific timezone

Tunable photocathode double-bunch mode for advanced accelerator application

27 Jul 2026, 13:50
20m
Ballroom C&D (Luskin)

Ballroom C&D

Luskin

To be considered for Working Group talk A5-Working group # 5

Speaker

Yiheng Ye (SLAC/Stanford)

Description

Generation and control of two electron bunches to achieve desired drive and witness quality is crucial for plasma-wakefield acceleration (PWFA) experiments. One scheme to generate two electron beams with desired spacing is to apply two laser pulses with ps delay on the photocathode and co-accelerated two electron beams in the same RF bucket. Such a method is used in e.g. two-color FEL[1,2,3] and PWFA experiments [4].This is also currently the standard running mode for PWFA experiment at FACET-II national user facility [5].

We will talk about the dynamic, operation, and control aspects of the photocathode two-bunches configuration with nC bunch charge, asymmetric bunch charge ratio, kA peak current, and multi-stage compression. We will talk about experimental performance, and benchmark it against simulation and analytic theory incorporating wakefield effect. We demonstrate excellent longitudinal simulation-experiment agreement using XTCAV measurements, and show that photocathode two bunches provide sufficient flexibility and tunability for various advanced accelerator applications.

[1] Marinelli, A., Ratner, D., Lutman, A. et al. High-intensity double-pulse X-ray free-electron laser. Nat Commun 6, 6369 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7369

[2] Zhang, Z., Ding, Y., Marinelli, A. & Huang, Z. Longitudinal dynamics of twin electron bunches in the Linac Coherent Light Source. Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 18, 030702 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.18.030702

[3] Chiadroni, E., Anania, M.P., Artioli, M. et al. Two Color FEL Driven by a Comb-like Electron Beam Distribution. Phys. Procedia 52, 27–35 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phpro.2014.06.005

[4] Pompili, R., Anania, M.P., Bellaveglia, M. et al. Beam manipulation with velocity bunching for PWFA applications. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 829, 17–23 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2016.01.061

[5] Yakimenko, V., Alsberg, L., Bong, E. et al. FACET-II facility for advanced accelerator experimental tests. Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 22, 101301 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.22.101301

Working group WG5

Authors

Alexander Knetsch (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Brendan O'Shea (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Claudio Emma (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Doug Storey (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Gerald Yocky (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Stanford University) Ivan Rajkovic (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Junzhi Wang (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Kelly Swanson (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Marcellus Parker (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Stanford University) Mark Hogan (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Nathan Majernik (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Ryan Loney (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Stanford University) Sharon Perez (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Stanford University) Spencer Gessner (SLAC) Yiheng Ye (SLAC/Stanford) Zack Buschmann (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Stanford University)

Presentation materials

There are no materials yet.