The KIT cSTART project (compact storage ring for accelerator research and technology) aims to demonstrate injection and storage of a high intensity ultra-short bunch using the FLUTE LINAC, as well as a laser-plasma accelerator (LPA). cSTART is planned to operate with a wide range of demanding parameters, such as bunch charge, bunch length and energy spread (from the LPA), making it extremely challenging for the choice of beam diagnostics with large dynamic ranges that are capable of operating within specifications. Moreover, turn by turn measurements are necessary in the cSTART storage ring as bunch characteristics are expected to dramatically change within a single turn. In this paper, we will describe the planned beam diagnostics system of the cSTART storage ring focusing on the turn-by-turn signal processing and reporting on characterization tests which were performed.

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is currently exploring a compact method of longitudinal electron bunch diagnostics with femtosecond resolution that has recently been demonstrated for other parameter ranges. The experimental setup utilizes a THz-based streaking approach with resonator structures, achieving both high compactness and efficiency. In this paper, we report on the experimental observation of streaking signals with our Compact Transverse Deflecting System, which has been successfully tested using two different resonators, an Inverse Split-Ring Resonator and a Tilted-Slit-Resonator.

FLUTE is a compact and flexible linac-based accelerator test facility at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. It serves as a platform for a variety of accelerator studies and to generate intense short THz pulses for various photon science experiments. Later, FLUTE will be also used as an injector of sub-100 fs bunches into the VLA-cSR (Very Large Acceptance compact Storage Ring), which is part of the cSTART (compact STorage Ring for Accelerator Research and Technology) project currently in the technical design phase at KIT. Recently, FLUTE's high energy section has been installed and commissioned. This includes the linac, bringing FLUTE beyond 5 MeV to full energy, the bunch compressor, and two corresponding diagnostics sections. A metal foil in the last diagnostics section has been used to generate a first THz signal with high energy electron bunches.

FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- und Test-Experiment) is a compact linac-based test facility for accelerator R&D and source of intense THz radiation for photon science. In preparation for the next experiments, the electron beam of the injector section of FLUTE has been characterized. In systematic studies the electron beam parameters, e.g., beam energy and emittance, are measured with several diagnostic systems. This knowledge allows the establishment of different operation settings and the optimization of electron beam parameters for future experiments.

A compact, longitudinal diagnostics for fs-scale electron bunches using a THz electric-field transient in a split-ring resonator (SRR) for streaking will be tested at the Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test- Experiment (FLUTE). For this new streaking technique, intensive THz pulses are required, which will be generated by laser-based optical rectification. We present a setup for generating THz pulses using tilted-pulse-front pumping in lithium niobate at room temperature. Excited by an 800 nm Ti:Sa pump laser with 35 fs bandwidth-limited pulse length, conversion efficiencies up to 0.027% were achieved. Furthermore, the status of the SRR experiment is shown.

www.opastonline.com Abstract Electron storage rings operating at high energies have proven to be invaluable source of synchrotron radiation. Two and even three simultaneous beams of particles have been observed at different light source facilities worldwide. So called alpha-buckets were studied at Metrological Light Source (MLS) in Berlin (Germany), SOLEIL facility in France, DIAMOND light source in UK, NSLS ring in Brookhaven (USA). It is widely recognized that alpha buckets are general phenomena which is not restricted to a certain storage ring. However, earlier measurements showed essential limitations on parameters of alpha-buckets, strong dependence on high order (sextupole and octupoles) magnetic field imperfections and associated fast decay of electron current as well as reduced life time. Also a rising relevance of high order non-linear longitudinal beam dynamics is associated with new generation of diffraction limited light sources (DLSR) approaches, which all suffer nonlinear momentum compaction factor. A large variety of future generation electron synchrotrons require a comprehensive investigation of the physical processes involved into the operation of such rings.

New operation modes are often considered during the development of new synchrotron light sources. An understanding of the effects involved is inevitable for a successful operation of these schemes. At the KIT storage ring KARA (Karlsruhe Research Accelerator), new modes can be implemented and tested at various energies, employing a variety of performant beam diagnostics devices. Negative momentum compaction optics at various energies have been established. Also, the influence of a negative momentum compaction factor on different effects has been investigated. This contribution comprises a short report on the status of the implementation of a negative momentum compaction optics at KARA. Additionally, first measurements of the changes to the current-dependent bunch length will be presented.

Electro-optical (EO) methods are nowadays well-proven diagnostic tools, which are utilized to detect THz fields in countless experiments. The world’s first near-field EO sampling monitor at an electron storage ring was developed and installed at the KIT storage ring KARA (Karlsruhe Research Accelerator) and optimized to detect longitudinal bunch profiles. This experiment with other diagnostic techniques builds a distributed, synchronized sensor network to gain comprehensive data about the phase-space of electron bunches as well as the produced coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR). These measurements facilitate studies of physical conditions to provide, at the end, intense and stable CSR in the THz range. At KIT, we also operate FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- und Test-Experiment), a new compact versatile linear accelerator as a test facility for novel techniques and diagnostics. There, EO diagnostics will be implemented to open up possibilities to evaluate and compare new techniques for longitudinal bunch diagnostics. In this contribution, we will give an overview of results achieved, the current status of the EO diagnostic setups at KARA and FLUTE and discuss future prospects.

Computer studies of longitudinal motion have been performed with the objective to estimate the possibility of detection of alpha-buckets at the KIT storage ring KARA (Karlsruhe Research Accelerator). The longitudinal equations of motion and the Hamiltonian were expanded to high order terms of the energy deviation of particles in a beam. Roots of third order equation for three leading terms of momentum compaction factor and free energy independent term were derived in a form suitable for analytical estimations. Averaged quadratic terms of closed orbit distortions caused by misalignment of magnetic elements in a ring lead to orbit lengthening independent of particle energy deviation. Particle transverse excursions were estimated and are taken into account. Simulations have been bench-marked on existing experiments at Metrology Light Source (MLS) in Berlin (Germany) and SOLEIL (France). Parameters of three simultaneous beams and alpha buckets at MLS and SOLEIL have been reproduced with high accuracy. A computer model of KARA was used to predict behavior and the dynamics of possible simultaneous beams in the ring.

Electron storage rings operating at high energies have proven to be invaluable source of synchrotron radiation. Two and even three simultaneous beams of particles have been observed at different light source facilities worldwide. So called alpha-buckets were studied at Metrological Light Source (MLS) in Berlin (Germany), SOLEIL facility in France, DIAMOND light source in UK, NSLS ring in Brookhaven (USA). It is widely recognized that alpha buckets are general phenomena which is not restricted to a certain storage ring. However, earlier measurements showed essential limitations on parameters of alpha-buckets, strong dependence on high order (sextupole and octupoles) magnetic field imperfections and associated fast decay of electron current as well as reduced life time. Also a rising relevance of high order non-linear longitudinal beam dynamics is associated with new generation of diffraction limited light sources (DLSR) approaches, which all suffer nonlinear momentum compaction factor. A large variety of future generation electron synchrotrons require a comprehensive investigation of the physical processes involved into the operation of such rings. In this paper, we present review of high order non-linear longitudinal beam dynamics based on the longitudinal equations of motion and Hamiltonian expanded to a high order of the momentum compaction factor. Roots of the third order equation with a free term are derived in a form suitable for analytical estimations. The momentum independent term of orbit lengthening due to particle transverse excursions is estimated and taken into account. The results from simulations were benchmarked against existing experiments at the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA), SOLEIL and MLS rings. Parameters of three simultaneous beams and alpha buckets at MLS and SOLEIL have been reproduced with high accuracy. General conditions for stable operation of alpha buckets are presented. Based on analytical formulas and computer simulations, studies of longitudinal motion at KARA have been performed with an objective to estimate feasibility of filling and storing of beam in α-buckets. A Computer model was used to describe the behavior and dynamics of simultaneous beams in the KARA storage ring.

The Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test-Experiment (FLUTE) is a KIT-operated linac-based test facility for accelerator research and development as well as a compact, ultra-broadband and short-pulse terahertz (THz) source. As a key component of FLUTE, the bunch compressor (chicane) consisting of four specially designed dipoles will be used to compress the 40-50 MeV electron bunches after the linac down to single fs bunch length. The maximum vertical magnetic field of the dipoles reach 0.22 T, with an effective length of 200 mm. The good field region is ±40 mm and ±10.5 mm in the horizontal and vertical direction, respectively. The latest measurement results of the dipoles in terms of field homogeneity, excitation and field reproducibility within the good field regions will be reported, which meet the predefined specifications. The measured 3D magnetic field distributions have been used to perform beam dynamics simulations of the bunch compressor. Effects of the real field properties on the beam dynamics, which are different from that of the ASTRA built-in dipole field, will be discussed.

The compact STorage ring for Accelerator Research and Technology (cSTART) project aims to store electron bunches of LWFA-like beams in a very large momentum acceptance storage ring. The project will be realized at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany). Initially, the Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test-Experiment (FLUTE), a source of ultra-short bunches, will serve as an injector for cSTART to benchmark and emulate laser-wakefield accelerator-like beams. In a second stage a laser-plasma accelerator will be used as an injector, which is being developed as part of the ATHENA project in collaboration with DESY and Helmholtz Institute Jena (HIJ). With an energy of 50 MeV and damping times of several seconds, the electron beam does not reach equilibrium emittance. Furthermore, the critical frequency of synchrotron radiation is 50 THz and in the same order as the bunch spectrum, which implies that the entire bunch radiates coherently. We perform longitudinal particle tracking simulations to investigate the evolution of the bunch length and spectrum as well as the emitted coherent synchrotron radiation. Finally, different options for the RF system are discussed.

A very large ac­cep­tance com­pact stor­age ring (VLA-cSR) is under de­sign at the In­sti­tute for Beam Physics and Tech­nol­ogy (IBPT) of the Karl­sruhe In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy (KIT, Ger­many). The com­bi­na­tion of a com­pact stor­age ring and a laser wake­field ac­cel­er­a­tor (LWFA) might be the basis for fu­ture com­pact light sources and ad­vanc­ing user fa­cil­i­ties. Mean­while, the post-LWFA beam should be adapted for stor­age and ac­cu­mu­la­tion in a ded­i­cated stor­age ring. Mod­i­fied geom­e­try and lat­tice of a VLA-cSR op­er­at­ing at 50 MeV en­ergy range have been stud­ied in de­tailed sim­u­la­tions. The main fea­tures of a new model are de­scribed here. The new de­sign, based on 45° bend­ing mag­nets, is suit­able to store the post-LWFA beam with a wide mo­men­tum spread (1% to 2%) as well as ul­tra-short elec­tron bunches in the fs range from the Fer­n­in­frarot Linac- Und Test- Ex­per­i­ment (FLUTE). The DBA-FDF lat­tice with re­laxed set­tings, split el­e­ments, and higher-or­der op­tics of tol­er­a­ble strength al­lows im­prov­ing the dy­namic aper­ture to an ac­cept­able level. This con­tri­bu­tion dis­cusses the lat­tice fea­tures in de­tail and dif­fer­ent pos­si­ble op­er­a­tion schemes of a VLA-cSR.

The accelerator FLUTE (name abbreviation derived from its German name: Ferninfrarot Linac- und Test-Experiment) has been set up in cooperation with DESY and PSI [1]. The electron source and diagnostics has commenced operation. General safety issues of FLUTE are covered in this paper. The activation of the accelerator and vacuum parts were predicted previously [2]. The attention is given to the activation of aluminum and impurities in the electron absorber of the beam dump. Potential air activation in the experimental hall is also discussed.

In the cSTART project, the KIT (Karlsruhe Institute for Technology) will build a very large acceptance compact storage ring (VLA-cSR) aiming to demonstrate and examine the injection and the storage of a laser wakefield accelerated (LWFA) beam. As for the first operation phase, FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- und Test-Experiment) will be used as an injector to the storage ring delivering an electron beam at 50 MeV energy. A design of the storage ring has been under development with a DBA-FDF (Double Bend Achromat, Focusing-Defocusing-Focusing) lattice having the optical elements very close to each other, making insertion of beam diagnostics very challenging. The design offers 4 m long drifts between the arcs for injection, physics experiments, and beam diagnostics. Given the small ring circumference of 44 m, the revolution frequency of single electron bunches and the repetition rates of its diagnostics are very high in the order of 6.8 MHz, which require very fast electronics. Moreover, to be able to measure signals from bunch currents ranging between 20 pC to 1 nC, very sensitive beam diagnostics and with high dynamic range are required. Meanwhile, ideas of a preliminary beam diagnostic system are being considered and discussed. In this presentation, we will report on these ideas and appreciate suggestions and comments from the community present.