A Variant of the Laboratory Compton Source at the NRNU MEPhI

Designing relatively inexpensive and compact (on a scale of several meters) sources of monochromatic X-ray radiation is possible using Compton backscattering of laser photons on an electron beam. Such sources can be used in materials science when creating new material, for nanostructure diagnostics at the atomic level, in biosystems research, in medicine and pharmacology, and in the physics and chemistry of fast combustion and explosion processes. The design of an X-ray source is possible on the basis of a compact storage ring with electron injection from a normally conducting linear accelerator with a photogun operating in the 3 GHz frequency range. The use of a storage ring makes it possible to obtain a high brightness of the source, a relatively high average intensity of the generated photons for given parameters of the electron and laser pulses, regulation of the energy of the generated photons in a wide range, and a high degree of their monochromaticity and coherence. To generate a photon flux with a tunable energy in the range 5–45 keV, the linear accelerator (linac) must produce electron bunch with a tunable energy in the range 20–60 MeV. This paper presents the results obtained in the design of a linear accelerator and a compact storage ring for an X-ray source with a photon energy in the energy range of 5–45 keV and a study of possible instabilities in the motion of picosecond relativistic electron bunches.