C$^3$ is an opportunity to realize an e$^+$e$^-$ collider for the study of the Higgs boson at $\sqrt{s} = 250$ GeV, with a well defined upgrade path to 550 GeV while staying on the same short facility footprint. C$^3$ is based on a fundamentally new approach to normal conducting linear accelerators that achieves both high gradient and high efficiency at relatively low cost. Given the advanced state of linear collider designs, the key system that requires technical maturation for C$^3$ is the main linac. This white paper presents the staged approach towards a facility to demonstrate C$^3$ technology with both Direct (source and main linac) and Parallel (beam delivery, damping ring, ancillary component) R&D. The white paper also includes discussion on the approach for technology industrialization, related HEP R&D activities that are enabled by C$^3$ R&D, infrastructure requirements and siting options.

In this paper we discuss the design choices and construction strategy of the tapered undulator system designed for a high energy extraction efficiency experiment in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum planned for installation at the Argonne National Laboratory Linac Extension Area (LEA) beamline. The undulator is comprised of 4 sections pure permanent magnet Halbach array separated by short break sections, each one of them housing a focusing quadrupole doublet and a phase shifter. The quadrupoles use a novel hybrid design which allows one to vary the gradient and match the beam transversely. The undulator tapering profile is optimized to maximize the energy conversion efficiency from a 343 MeV 1 kA beam into coherent 257.5 nm radiation taking into account the longitudinal current profile generated by the linac.

A workshop on The Next Generation Gamma-Ray Sources sponsored by the Office of Nuclear Physics at the Department of Energy, was held November 17--19, 2016 in Bethesda, Maryland. The goals of the workshop were to identify basic and applied research opportunities at the frontiers of nuclear physics that would be made possible by the beam capabilities of an advanced laser Compton beam facility. To anchor the scientific vision to realistically achievable beam specifications using proven technologies, the workshop brought together experts in the fields of electron accelerators, lasers, and optics to examine the technical options for achieving the beam specifications required by the most compelling parts of the proposed research programs. An international assembly of participants included current and prospective $\gamma$-ray beam users, accelerator and light-source physicists, and federal agency program managers. Sessions were organized to foster interactions between the beam users and facility developers, allowing for information sharing and mutual feedback between the two groups. The workshop findings and recommendations are summarized in this whitepaper.

This report is a summary of two preparatory workshops, documenting the community vision for the national accelerator and beam physics research program. It identifies the Grand Challenges of accelerator and beam physics (ABP) field and documents research opportunities to address these Grand Challenges. This report will be used to develop a strategic research roadmap for the field of accelerator science.

Next-generation, high-performance storage ring (SR) light sources based on multibend achromat optics will require on-axis injection because of the extremely small dynamic aperture. Injectors will need to supply full-current bunch replacement in the SR with high single-bunch charge for swap-out. For upgrades of existing light sources, such as the Advanced Photon Source Upgrade (APS-U), it is economical to retain the existing injector infrastructure and make appropriate improvements. The challenges to these improvements include achieving high single-bunch charge in the presence of instabilities, beam loading, charge stability and reliability. In this paper, we discuss the rationale for the injector upgrades chosen for APS-U, as well as backup and potential alternate schemes. To date, we have achieved single-bunch charge from the injectors that doubles the original design value, and have a goal to achieve about three times the original design value.

As the development of nuclear physics and atomic sciences progresses, monochromatic and high-flux gamma-ray light sources are highly demanded by many experiments in these fields. We have designed a compact storage ring for gamma-ray source generation based on the Compton backscattering technique. The energy range of the electron beam stored in the ring will be from 500 to 800 MeV, with the capability of generating a gamma ray with an energy range from about 4 to 10 MeV. The maximum energy loss for an electron could be more than 1% for one scattering event, which could have a significant impact on electron beam dynamics. To study this impact, a 6D macroparticle tracking code has been developed by including the Compton scattering, damping, quantum excitation, and synchrotron radiation in the storage ring. The equilibrium states have been studied with this code, and the results show good agreement with theoretical predictions. The electron beam loss rate induced by Compton scattering has also been investigated by varying the input laser beam parameters. This study allows us to optimize the storage ring operation for a stable, high-flux, and narrow-bandwidth gamma-ray beam generation.

After decades of successful operation as a 7-GeV synchrotron radiation source, the Advanced Photon Source is pursing a major upgrade that involves replacement of the storage ring with an ultra-low emittance multi-bend achromat design. Using a seven-bend hybrid multi-bend achromat with reverse bending magnets gives a natural emittance of 42 pm operated at 6 GeV. The x-ray brightness is predicted to increase by more than two orders of magnitude. Challenges are many, but appear manageable based on thorough simulation and in light of the experience gained from world-wide operation of 3rd-generation light sources. The upgraded ring will operate in swap-out mode, which has allowed pushing the performance beyond the limits imposed by conventional operation.

Coherent pulse stacking (CPS) is a new time-domain coherent addition technique that stacks several optical pulses into a single output pulse, enabling high pulse energy from fiber lasers. We develop a robust, scalable, and distributed digital control system with firmware and software integration for algorithms, to support the CPS application. We model CPS as a digital filter in the Z domain and implement a pulse-pattern-based cavity phase detection algorithm on an field-programmable gate array (FPGA). A two-stage (2+1 cavities) 15-pulse stacking system achieves an 11.0 peak-power enhancement factor. Each optical cavity is fed back at 1.5kHz, and stabilized at an individually-prescribed round-trip phase with 0.7deg and 2.1deg rms phase errors for Stages 1 and 2, respectively. Optical cavity phase control with nanometer accuracy ensures 1.2% intensity stability of the stacked pulse over 12 h. The FPGA-based feedback control system can be scaled to large numbers of optical cavities.

Coherent pulse stacking (CPS) is a new time-domain coherent addition technique that stacks several optical pulses into a single output pulse, enabling high pulse energy and high average power. A Z-domain model targeting the pulsed laser is assembled to describe the optical interference process. An algorithm, extracting the cavity phase and pulse phases from limited data, where only the pulse intensity is available, is developed to diagnose optical cavity resonators. We also implement the algorithm on the cascaded system of multiple optical cavities, achieving phase errors less than 1.0° (root mean square), which could ensure the stability of CPS.

The precise timing and synchronization system is an essential part for the ultra-fast electron and X-ray sources based on the photocathode injector where strict synchronization among RF, laser, and beams are required. In this paper, we present an integrated sub-100 femtosecond timing and synchronization system developed and demonstrated recently in Tsinghua University based on the collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. The timing and synchronization system includes the fiber-based CW carrier phase reference distribution system for delivering stabilized RF phase reference to multiple receiver clients, the Low Level RF (LLRF) control system to monitor and generate the phase and amplitude controllable pulse RF signal, and the laser-RF synchronization system for high precision synchronization between optical and RF signals. Each subsystem is characterized by its blocking structure and is also expansible. A novel asymmetric calibration sideband signal method was proposed for eliminating the non-linear distortion in the optical synchronization process. According to offline and online tests, the system can deliver a stable signal to each client and suppress the drift and jitter of the RF signal for the accelerator and the laser oscillator to less than 100 fs RMS (∼0.1° in 2856 MHz frequency). Moreover, a demo system with a LLRF client and a laser-RF synchronization client is deployed and operated successfully at the Tsinghua Thomson scattering X-ray source. The beam-based jitter measurement experiments have been conducted to evaluate the overall performance of the system, and the jitter sources are discussed.

The ALS-U upgrade promises to deliver diffraction limited performance throughout the soft x-ray range by lowering the horizontal emittance to about 50 pm resulting in 2-3 orders of brightness increase for soft x-rays compared to the current ALS. The design utilizes a multi bend achromat lattice with on-axis swap-out injection and an accumulator ring. One central design goal is to install and commission ALS-U within a short dark period. This paper summarizes the status of the conceptual design of the accelerator, as well as some results of the R&D program that has been ongoing for the last 3 years.

In order to develop a design for a laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) driver, we demonstrate key technologies that enable fiber lasers to produce high energy, ultrafast pulses. These technologies must be scalable, and operate in the presence of thermal drift, acoustic noise, and other perturbations typical of an operating system. We show that coherent pulse stacking (CPS), which requires optical interferometers, can be made robust by image-relaying, multipass optical cavities, and by optical phase control schemes that sense pulse train amplitudes from each cavity. A four-stage pulse stacking system using image-relaying cavities is controlled for 14 hours using a pulse-pattern sensing algorithm. For coherent addition of simultaneous ultrafast pulses, we introduce a new scheme using diffractive optics, and show experimentally that four pulses can be added while a preserving pulse width of 128 fs.

The past decade was characterized by an increasing scientific demand for extending towards higher repetition rates (MHz class and beyond) the performance of already operating lower repetition rate accelerator-based instruments such as x-ray free electron lasers (FELs) and ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) and microscopy (UEM) instruments. Such a need stimulated a worldwide spread of a vibrant R&D activity targeting the development of high-brightness electron sources capable of operating at these challenging rates. Among the different technologies pursued, rf guns based on room-temperature structures resonating in the very high frequency (VHF) range (30-300 MHz) and operating in continuous wave successfully demonstrated in the past few years the targeted brightness and reliability. Nevertheless, recently proposed upgrades for x-ray FELs and the always brightness-frontier applications such as UED and UEM are now requiring a further step forward in terms of beam brightness in electron sources. In this paper, we present a few possible upgrade paths that would allow one to extend, in a relatively simple and cost-effective way, the performance of the present VHF technology to the required new goals.

Coherent pulse stacking (CPS) is a new time-domain coherent addition technique that stacks several optical pulses into a single output pulse, enabling high pulse energy from fiber lasers. Due to advantages of precise timing and fast processing, we use an FPGA to process digital signals and do feedback control so as to realize stacking-cavity stabilization. We develop a hardware and firmware design platform to support the coherent pulse stacking application. A firmware bias control module stabilizes the amplitude modulator at the minimum of its transfer function. A cavity control module ensures that each optical cavity is kept at a certain individually-prescribed and stable round-trip phase with 2.5 deg rms phase error.