A traveling wave accelerator with HOM outcouplers for FELs

The application to FELs (free-electron lasers) of RF electron guns with laser-driven photocathodes has opened the door to developing efficient optical FELs. The next task is to develop accelerator structures which can transport such beams with a minimum of beam degradation. A low-cost approach to this using four 1.26-m constant gradient (CG) TW sections driven in parallel by a SLAC 5045 klystron is suggested. Using CG sections makes the higher order modes incoherent due to the linearly decreasing group velocity along the structure. Together with incorporating higher-order-mode outcouplers, this system is predicted to accelerate 1 nC per micropulse, 0.4 A per macropulse to 75 MeV from an injection energy of 5 MeV. Emittance growth is predicted to be 5 mm-mr. >