23–28 Aug 2026
America/Los_Angeles timezone

Upstream Photocathode Laser Tailoring for Optimized Longitudinal Phase Space in High-Brightness FELs

THA02
27 Aug 2026, 09:50
20m
Contributed Oral Presentation Session 7: Electron Sources Electron Sources (Contributed)

Speaker

HAO ZHANG (University of California, Los Angeles)

Description

Generating high-brightness electron beams with optimized longitudinal phase space is essential for driving next-generation free-electron lasers (FELs). However, accelerator-induced distortions often degrade beam quality and lasing performance. Here, we present a novel approach to counteract these effects by manipulating the photoemission laser’s temporal distribution. By introducing a controlled longitudinal ramp to a flattop profile via spatiotemporal shaping of the UV photocathode laser, we achieved deterministic phase space control at the LCLS-II superconducting injector. We demonstrate that this tailored optical asymmetry acts as a pre-compensation mechanism for downstream resistive wall wakefields at ~80 pC. This effectively linearizes the phase space and suppresses nonlinear energy chirp, which is the critical requirement for optimal FEL performance. These findings establish upstream spatiotemporal laser shaping as a powerful tool for directly optimizing FEL beam brightness at the source.
Zhou et al., PRAB 24, 073401 (2021)
**Zhang et al., arXiv:2601.03580 (2026)
Lemons et al., Ultrafast Sci. 5, 0112 (2025)

Funding Agency

Work supported by DOE BES under DE-AC02-76SF00515, DE-SC0022559, DE-FOA-0002859, DE-FG02-86ER13491; NSF 2231334, 2431903, 2436343; AFOSR FA9550-23-1-0409.

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Author

HAO ZHANG (University of California, Los Angeles)

Co-authors

Randy Lemons (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Jack Hirschman (Stanford University) Nicholas Sudar (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) David Cesar (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Nicole Neveu (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Gabriel Just (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Paris Franz (Stanford University) River Robles (Stanford University) Justin Baker (University of California, Los Angeles) Kirk Larsen (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Chad Pennington (University of California, Los Angeles) Benjamin Mencer (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Dr Mathew Britton (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Dr Razib Obaid (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Dr Ji Qiang (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Taran Driver (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Zhen Zhang (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Zihan Zhu (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Kurtis Borne (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Ryan Coffee (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Yuantao Ding (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Feng Zhou (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Joseph Robinson (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) James Cryan (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Prof. Mike Dunne (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Agostino Marinelli (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Sergio Carbajo (University of California, Los Angeles)

Presentation materials

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