THE PHOTO INJECTOR TEST FACILITY AT DESY ZEUTHEN:

RESULTS OF THE FIRST PHASE

[Link]∗ , [Link], [Link]̈hr, [Link], [Link], H.-[Link],

[Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link],
[Link], DESY, D-15738 Zeuthen, Germany
[Link], [Link], [Link]̈mer, [Link], BESSY, 12487 Berlin, Germany
[Link], [Link]̈ttmann, [Link], DESY, D-22603 Hamburg, Germany
[Link], [Link], [Link], INFN Milano, 20090 Segrate, Italy
[Link], INRNE Sofia, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria
[Link], [Link], Max-Born-Institute, D-12489 Berlin, Germany
[Link], [Link]̈ller, [Link], [Link], TU Darmstadt, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany
[Link]ßbach, Inst. f. Experimentalphysik, Univ. Hamburg, D-22761 Hamburg, Germany
Abstract completed with the transfer of a completely characterized
RF gun to the VUV-FEL at DESY Hamburg in November
The photo injector test facility at DESY Zeuthen suc-
2003. The results obtained with this gun are briefly summa-
cessfully concluded it’s first phase of operation in Novem-
rized in the following section. Meanwhile, a new gun has
ber 2003 (PITZ1). After a complete characterization of the
been installed and conditioned at PITZ. Recent improve-
injector, the gun has been transfered to Hamburg and has
ments and first measurement results as well as plans for the
already been taken into operation on the VUV-FEL.
future of PITZ are reported below.
The measurement program for the year 2003 included
RF commissioning, emittance studies, momentum and
bunch length measurements, and studies of the influence RESULTS OF PITZ1
of the drive laser parameters. We provide an overview on
the latest achievements in all of these topics and an outlook The measurement program of PITZ1 in the year 2003 in-
on the future plans at PITZ. cluded RF commissioning, emittance studies, momentum
and bunch length measurements, and studies of the influ-
INTRODUCTION ence of the drive laser parameters.
RF conditioning. The smooth commissioning of the gun
The Photo Injector Test Facility at DESY Zeuthen allowed an operation with up to 900 µs long RF pulses at
(PITZ) has been built in order to test and optimize elec- 10 Hz repetition rate and about 3.3 MW peak power in the
tron sources for Free Electron Lasers (FELs) and future gun. This corresponds to an accelerating gradient at the
linear colliders. The goal of PITZ is to produce intense cathode of about 42 MV/m, and an average power of 27
electron beams with small transverse emittance and short kW in the gun with 0.9% duty cycle [1]. Such a long RF
bunch length as required for FEL operation. pulse operation fulfills the TTF2 VUV-FEL requirements.
The photo injector consists of a 1.5 cell L-band RF gun Photo cathode laser. The optimization of the photo cath-
with a Cs2 Te photo cathode, a solenoid system for space ode laser parameters included longitudinal and transverse
charge compensation, a photo cathode laser system which profile. In order to minimize the space charge influence on
generates long pulse trains with variable temporal and spa- the transverse beam emittance, a longitudinal flat top pro-
tial pulse shape, and an extended diagnostics section. A file of 20 ps duration (FWHM) and rise/fall times of 2 ps
schematics of the PITZ1 setup is shown in figure 1. should be realized. The transverse laser profile is needed
Faraday cup cathode to be radially homogeneous, and of adjustable rms size.
streak camera (Cs2Te)
quadrupole
& screen 1 In reality, these ideal parameters could not yet be reached.
Faraday ICT dipole triplet ICT RF input
Typically, a longitudinal profile of 23 ps FWHM with 6 ps
cup o
bucking
60 11
00 coil rise/fall time has been used, and a relatively homogeneous
screen 4 & screen 3 slits & coaxial
radiators screen 2 coupler cavity transverse profile of size σ rms = 0.5 ... 0.6 mm.
screen 5 BPM (copper, 1.5 cells)
Faraday cup laser input Bunch charge. Detailed studies of the produced electron
(262 nm) main solenoid
bunch charge as function of the RF phase and the solenoid
settings were performed [1], and comparisons with simu-
Figure 1: Scheme of the PITZ1 setup.
lations allowed to improve the understanding of the photo
injector. The nominal bunch charge is 1 nC and can be ad-
PITZ has been taken into operation in January 2002.
justed by tuning the photo cathode laser power.
The first stage of the project (PITZ1) has been successfully
Momentum and momentum spread. Extensive measure-
∗ corresponding author: [Link]@[Link] ments have been undertaken in order to study longitudinal
momentum and momentum spread of the electron beam. A ified, resulting in a significant improvement of the homo-
maximum mean momentum of 4.72 MeV/c has been mea- geneity of the transverse laser profile at the photo cathode.
sured. The minimum momentum spread was found to be Figure 3 shows an example of the laser spot at the cathode
33 keV/c. For more details see [2]. plane.
Bunch length. The bunch length has been measured for
different conditions [2]. A minimum length (FWHM) has
been measured to be (21.04±0.45stat±4.14syst) ps.
Normalized emittance. For measurements of the normal-
ized projected beam emittance, the slit mask scan tech-
nique is used [1]. The optimization of the photo cathode
laser properties together with RF field and solenoid pa-
√
rameters yielded an average emittance of εx εy = 1.7 π
mm·mrad [3], see figure 2. Thus, the start-up conditions of
the TTF2 VUV-FEL on normalized projected beam emit-
tance [4] have been fulfilled.

3 εx
ε (π mm mrad)

2.8 εy
2.6
√εxεy
2.4
2.2
Figure 3: 3D image of the transverse laser profile at the
2
1.8 position of the photo cathode.
1.6
1.4 Emittance measurements. Thermal emittance measure-
1.2 ments at low charge (few pC) were performed in June 2004.
1 An average kinetic energy of the photo electrons after emis-
0 10 20 30 40 50 sion has been found to be about 0.8 eV [3]. The normalized
Ibucking (A)
projected beam emittance measurements and the parame-
ter space optimization for high gradients are ongoing. As a
Figure 2: Measured transverse normalized emittance as preliminary result, the minimum measured emittance was
function of the current in the bucking solenoid (responsible about 2.5 π mm·mrad at the nominal charge of 1 nC [3].
for compensating the magnetic field of the main solenoid Longitudinal phase space. Momentum measurements
at the cathode plane) for the optimized RF phase and main in August 2004 resulted in a maximum momentum of 5.2
solenoid current [3]. The measurements in both planes, x MeV/c. First measurements of the momentum spread in-
√
and y, are shown as well as the geometric average εx εy . dicated, that the minimum momentum spread could be as
low as 22 keV/c, which would be considerably smaller than
the PITZ1 measurements. Bunch length measurements still
RECENT IMPROVEMENTS have to be performed.

After the fully characterized gun has been transfered

PITZ2
to DESY Hamburg and taken into operation at the TTF2
VUV-FEL, a new gun cavity has been installed at PITZ. The second stage of PITZ, called PITZ2, will be a large
This gun has extensively been conditioned, and measure- extension of the experimental setup and its measurement
ments of the electron beam properties are ongoing. The program [7]. The main intention is a further improvement
most recent measurement results comprise (see also [5]): of the electron beam quality with the goal to approach
RF commissioning. The limited input peak power of the the requirements of the European XFEL. This needs an
5 MW klystron allows for a maximum power in the gun of optimization of the photoinjector and all subsystems,
about 4 MW. In order to reach a high average power, the including laser, photo cathodes, and guns, as well as
pulse length has been increased up to 1300 µs. An average simulation tools.
power of about 33 kW has been reached in July 2004 [5]. Booster cavity. In order to conserve the small beam
Dark current studies. The behaviour of the dark current emittance produced at the gun, a booster cavity will be
emitted from the gun has been studied. Due to the high rf installed. Using a preliminary booster, the beam energy
gradient and the limited surface quality of this gun, a high will be increased from about 5 MeV to ∼ 16 MeV. This
amount of dark current has been measured and was found booster has been tuned and is presently under vacuum
to be the reason for destruction of vacuum components (e.g. preparations. It will be conditioned before its installation
view screens) and photo cathode surfaces [6]. at the beamline, which is foreseen to happen in early spring
Laser optical beamline. In parallel to these activities, the 2005. Later, the beam energy will be further increased to
optical beamline of the photo cathode laser has been mod- about 30 MeV, using a final booster specially designed for
16m 15m 12.5m ~10m ~9m ~8m ~6m ~4.5m ~2m ~1m 0m
Module 10 Module 9 Module 8 Module 7 Module 6 Module 5 Module 4 Module 3 Module 2 Module 1
Beam Dump EMSY + Spectrometer Phase Space Tomography Matching RF Deflector EMSY + Quads Spectrometer Booster Low Energy Diagnostics Gun Section

11
00
Wire Wire
Scanner Scanner
EMSY EMSY EMSY

OY
O O O O O OY
O OY 00
11 OY OY 111
000 Y Y

Sweeper

11
00 OY
bipolar bipolar
streak streak 00
11
00
11 streak
streak
OY Symbols:
O Y OTR− / YAG−screen Quadrupole
streak streak
OY
00
11
BPM ICT FC / Beam dump

Slit /
Collimator
11
00 Cherenkov radiator

Steering dipole
streak Streak readout
dispersive arm: 1−1.5m

Figure 4: Preliminary layout of PITZ2.

PITZ. understanding of the photo injector, the optimization of

RF system. In order to operate the booster cavity, a all subsystems is needed. For that purpose, extensive
second rf system has been installed and is being taken into beam dynamics simulations have to be done and compared
operation. Since reaching a higher gradient in gun and to measurements. This includes improvements on the
booster is essential for producing low emittance beams, simulation tools.
the existing 5 MW klystrons will be replaced by 10 MW Furthermore, it is planned to improve the existing gun
klystrons in the year 2005. design and develop a gun for the European XFEL with
Beam diagnostics. The increased beam energy requires improved geometry and cooling. This is a precondition for
new, adapted diagnostics tools. For this reason, a com- the exploration of the European XFEL parameter space
pletely new diagnostics beamline will be installed at PITZ, and high duty cycle operation. For that, studies of the
suitable for the higher beam energy. Beside standard photo cathode materials are also necessary and foreseen.
beam diagnostics devices like e.g. OTR view screens,
possibilities for slice emittance measurements and phase
space tomography are foreseen to be implemented. In SUMMARY
order to test the emittance conservation principle, the
emittance development along the beam axis has to be The first phase of PITZ has successfully concluded in
monitored. For that purpose, three emittance measurement November 2003 with the full characterization of the photo
stations and several quadrupoles are distributed along the injector. The main results have been summarized. A large
beamline. A preliminary layout of the complete PITZ2 extension of the existing setup and the measurement pro-
beamline is shown in figure 4. gram is planned. Preparations for the PITZ2 project are
As a first step towards the PITZ2 beamline, a simplified ongoing, and results of the first improvements have been
setup with only a limited number of diagnostics devices presented.
will be realized. The design of this minimum version
of the PITZ2 setup has been finished, and the beamline REFERENCES
elements are currently under construction. Before the [1] M. Krasilnikov et al., Characterization of the Electron Source
booster cavity can be taken into operation, a beam dump at the Photo Injector test facility at DESY Zeuthen”, FEL
needs to be commissioned. This is a critical point, since 2003, Tsukuba, Sept. 2003.
long bunch trains and small spot sizes require special [2] [Link], Investigations about the logitudinal phase space at
design considerations. a photo injector for minimized emittance, PhD thesis, Hum-
Laser system. The transverse and longitudinal laser boldt University Berlin, May 2004.
profile have been found to be crucial for the production [3] [Link] et al., Transverse emittance measurements at the
of low emittance beams. The goal is to reach the param- Photo Injector Test Facility at DESY Zeuthen, FEL 2004, Tri-
eters determined by simulations: a longitudinal flat top este, Sept. 2004.
distribution of 20 ps length (FWHM) with rise/fall times [4] ”SASE FEL at the TESLA Facility, Phase2”, DESY Report
of 2 ps, and a very homogeneous, circular transverse laser TESLA-FEL 2002-01, June 2002.
profile. These requirements can only be realized by a [5] [Link] et al., Recent Results and Perspectives of the Low
special development of the laser system (a two-channel Emittance Photo Injector at PITZ, FEL 2004, Trieste, Sept.
mixing system, mixing high power gaussian and low 2004.
power rectangular laser pulses) and a further improvement [6] [Link] et al., Conditioning and high power tests of the rf
of the optical beamline. guns at PITZ, EPAC 2004, Lucerne, June 2004.
Further optimization. In order to reach optimum [7] [Link] et al., Future plans at the Photo Injector Test Facility
electron beam parameters and improve the theoretical at DESY Zeuthen, FEL 2003, Tsukuba, Sept. 2003.