What Have we Learned from the LCLS Injector

The LCLS injector reliably delivered a high quality electron beam since it started operations three years ago. Some initial commissioning results were described in Ref. [1]. This note is to summarize what we have understood from the LCLS injector including drive laser, cathode, RF gun, injector beam line elements, beam modeling and operations. What we have learned during the LCLS injector commissioning and operation has lead to modified specifications for the UV drive laser system. A flat temporal profile originally required in the LCLS design is not necessary to achieve a low emittance electron beam for the LCLS operations. According to our recent studies, a laser pulse with 3 ps Gaussian temporal profile (FWHM) can achieve a similar emittance compared to a flat temporal profile laser. The sensitivity of the emittance to the laser pulse length at 250 pC of bunch charge was studied, as shown in Figure 1. Only slight variations were observed for both projected and time-sliced emittances with laser pulses from 2.2 ps to 4.5 ps FWHM. Space charge forces certainly become weak but RF emittance which is proportional to the bunch length square increases due to the longer laser pulse. Thus, the projected emittance optimum may be a trade-off between space charge forces and RF emittance, while the time-sliced emittance determined by space charge forces may be slightly improved with a longer laser pulse length. Simulations and theory also show that spatial Gaussian-cut laser profile produces a better emittance compared to uniform profiles due to increased linearity of the space charge forces. Preliminary experimental data show that the emittance with a Gaussian-cut is almost as good as the one with uniform although not better than. In addition, the laser transmission through the iris for spatial Gaussian-cut is about twice the one for spatial uniform. More experimental studies with the new Coherent laser system are needed to make a more solid conclusion.