Electron beam shaping via laser heater temporal shaping

Abstract

Active longitudinal beam optics can help free-electron laser facilities achieve cutting edge performance by optimizing the beam to produce multicolor pulses, suppress caustics, or support attosecond lasing. As the next generation of superconducting accelerators comes online, there is a need to find new elements which can both operate at high-beam power and which offer multiplexing capabilities at MHz repetition rate. Laser heater shaping promises to satisfy both criteria by imparting a programmable slice-energy spread on a shot-by-shot basis. We use a simple kinetic analysis to show how control of the slice energy spread translates into control of the bunch current profile, and then we present a collection of start-to-end simulations at LCLS-II in order to illustrate the technique.