The VELA and CLARA Test Facilities at Daresbury Laboratory

The Versatile Electron Linear Accelerator (VELA) provides enabling infrastructures targeted at the development and testing of novel and compact accelerator technologies, specifically through partnership with academia and industry, aimed at addressing applications in medicine, health, security, energy and industrial processing. The facility is now fully commissioned and is taking advantage of the variable electron beam parameters to demonstrate new techniques/processes or otherwise develop new technologies for future commercial realization. Examples of which include; electron diffraction and new cargo scanning processes. The Compact Linear Accelerator for Research and Applications (CLARA) will be a novel FEL test facility, focused on the generation of ultra-short photon pulses with extreme levels of stability and synchronization. The principal aim is to experimentally demonstrate that sub-cooperation length pulse generation with FELs is viable, and to compare the various schemes being championed. The results will translate directly to existing and future X-ray FELs, enabling attosecond pulse generation. Both the VELA and CLARA facilities are co-located at Daresbury Laboratory and provide the UK with a unique platform for scientific and commercial R&D using ultra-short pulse, high precision electron and photon beams.