RF-GUN OPTIMIZATION FOR FEMTO-SECOND ELECTRON BUNCHES

The aim of this study is to optimize and construct an rfgun to be a source of femto-second electron bunches to produce coherent far infrared (FIR) radiation or femtosecond x-ray pulses. To produce ultra-short bunches we use an rf-gun with a magnetic bunch compression in the form of α -magnet. In this study we concentrate on the specific optimization of an rf-gun to produce femtosecond electron bunches. The optimum geometric and electric rf-gun specifications have been investigated through numerical simulation with the particle-in-cell code PARMELA. The numerical simulation show that the electron bunches from this optimum rf-gun as short as a few fs rms can be expected.