17–22 May 2026
C.I.D
Europe/Zurich timezone

Performance of a Polarizer-based Photoinjector Laser Pulse Train Generator for the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator

MOP6356
18 May 2026, 16:00
2h
C.I.D

C.I.D

Deauville, France
Poster Presentation MC6.T26: Instrumentation: Photon Beam Lines and Components Poster session

Speaker

Rachel Margraf-O'Neal (Argonne National Laboratory)

Description

The Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) facility produces high-charge (100s of nC) electron beams for studying wakes in resonant structures. To increase total charge and drive a resonant wake, electrons are delivered in trains of eight bunches with a separation of 769 ps matching the linac operating frequency of 1.3 GHz. AWA’s photoinjector laser system includes a bunch-train generator, or “multisplitter,” which produces this bunch-train structure using three cascaded split-and-delay stages. High-charge operation relies on even splitting ratios in the multisplitter. Damaging electrical breakdown events within the electron gun, driven by high single bunch charge, occur at lower total charge when the pulse train is non-uniform, limiting maximum charge. Thus, the multisplitter system was recently upgraded to use polarizing beamsplitters and half-wave-plates (HWPs) which equalize the beam splitting ratios in each delay stage.* Since that work, additional modifications have been made to further refine the bunch train balance. This work provides an improved experimental demonstration of and tuning/operational insights into AWA’s upgraded pulse train generator.

Funding Agency

This work is supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, under contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Footnotes

*R. Margraf-O'Neal et al., "Upgraded photoinjector laser pulse train generator at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator", in Proc. NAPAC2025, Sacramento, CA, USA, Aug. 2025, pp. 888-890.

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Author

Rachel Margraf-O'Neal (Argonne National Laboratory)

Co-authors

Alexander Ody (Argonne National Laboratory) Jason Xu (University of Wisconsin–Madison) John Power (Argonne National Laboratory) Josh Hlavenka (Argonne National Laboratory) Philippe Piot (Argonne National Laboratory) Scott Doran (Argonne National Laboratory) Tong Zhou (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Presentation materials

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