The design for the LCLS RF photoinjector

We report on the design of the RF photoinjector of the Linac Coherent Light Source. The RF photoinjector is required to produce a single 150 MeV bunch of similar to 1 nC and similar to 100 A peak current at a repetition rate of 120 Hz with a normalized rms transverse emittance of similar to 1 pi mm-mrad. The design employs a 1.6-cell S-band RF gun with an optical spot size at the cathode of a radius of similar to 1 mm and a pulse duration with an rms sigma of similar to 3 ps. The peak RF field at the cathode is 150 MV/m with extraction 57 degrees ahead of the RF peak. A solenoidal field near the cathode allows the compensation of the initial emittance growth by the end of the injection linac. Spatial and temporal shaping of the laser pulse striking the cathode will reduce the compensated emittance even further. Also, to minimize the contribution of the thermal emittance from the cathode surface, while at the same time optimizing the quantum efficiency, the laser wavelength for a Cu cathode should be tunable around 260 nm. Following the injection linac the geometric emittance simply damps linearly with energy growth. PARMELA simulations show that this design will produce the desired normalized emittance, which is about a factor of two lower than has been achieved to date in other systems. In addition to low emittance, we also aim for laser amplitude stability of 1% in the UV and a timing jitter in the electron beam of 0.5 ps rms, which will lead to less than 10% beam intensity fluctuation after the electron bunch is compressed in the main linac. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.