arXiv subjects

Jiahang Shao

Publications and source records attributed to Jiahang Shao.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Development of a quadripartite wakefield structure as dechirper for free electron laser

Wakefield structures are critical for beam manipulation in free-electron lasers (FELs), particularly when serving as dechirpers, where beam-induced longitudinal wakefields compensate the energy chirp introduced during beam magnetic compression. However, conventional planar structures also generate time-dependent quadrupole wakefields due to their asymmetric geometry, which can cause beam mismatch and projected emittance growth. To address this limitation, we propose a quadripartite wakefield structure comprising four identical corrugated plates, able to fully suppress quadrupole wakefields while preserving strong longitudinal wakefields. To accurately evaluate its performance, we calculate wake potentials based on the Panofsky-Wenzel theorem using three-dimensional simulation software and extract the corresponding wake functions by deconvolution. We further adopt a particle-to-particle (P2P) tracking method incorporating these wake functions, which is capable of accounting for higher-order components and nonlinear effects that are typically neglected in standard tracking codes. Simulation results confirm that the quadripartite geometry offers significantly reduced projected emittance growth and a 25% shorter structure length compared with the planar design. The tracking method also reveals that the nonlinearities of three-dimensional wakefields induce noticeable slice emittance growth for large transverse beam sizes, which may in turn affect lasing performance. In addition, the tracking method enables analysis of various types of assembly error and indicates that misalignment along the direction of plate motion may severely degrade the emittance via dipole wakefields. Such misalignment can be mitigated through beam-based alignment and precise plate adjustment using high-resolution servo motors.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2025

Prototype design of a digital Low-Level RF system for S3FEL S-band Transverse Deflecting Cavities

Transverse Deflecting Cavities (TDCs) are generally adopted for electron beam diagnosis. Three sets of S-band and two sets of X-band TDCs are planned at Shenzhen Superconducting Soft X-ray Free Electron Laser (S3FEL) to accurately measure the temporal distribution of ultra-short electron bunches. The microwave system of one TDC consisting of a Low-Level Radio-Frequency system (LLRF), a solid-state amplifier, a klystron, and several waveguide couplers is operated in pulse mode with a maximum repetition rate of 50 Hz. Its microwave stabilities for amplitude and phase are required to be better than 0.05%/0.05° (RMS). This article will introduce the prototype design of the hardware, firmware, and software of the digital LLRF system for S-band TDCs. We use a homemade local oscillator and commercial cards based on the MicroTCA standard in hardware design. The firmware design will use an IQ demodulation and a reference-tracking algorithm to eliminate the measurement noise and drift. The software design is based on the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS), achieving data acquisition, slow control, and interface display functions. This technical report will also show some preliminary test results.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Evaluating Effects of Geometry and Material Composition on Production of Transversely Shaped Beams from Diamond Field Emission Array Cathodes

Field emission cathodes (FECs) are attractive for the next generation of injectors due to their ability to provide high current density bright beams with low intrinsic emittance. One application of FECs worthy of special attention is to provide transversely shaped electron beams for emittance exchange that translates a transverse electron beam pattern into a longitudinal pattern. FECs can be fabricated in a desired pattern and produce transversely shaped beams without the need for complex masking or laser schemes. However, reliable and consistent production of transversely shaped beams is affected by material properties of the FEC. This paper reports the results of testing two diamond field emitter array (DFEA) FECs with the same lithography pattern and emitter geometry but different material and tip characteristics. Although both cathodes were able to sustain gradients of 44 MV/m and produce maximum output integral charge of 0.5 nC per radiofrequency (rf) pulse, their emission patterns were quite different. One cathode did not produce a patterned beam while the other one did. Differences in field emission characteristics and patterned beam production were explained by the differences in the tip geometry and the cathode material properties. The main practical takeaway was found to be that the tip sharpness was not a prerequisite for good patterned beam production. Instead, other material characteristics, such as the ballast resistance, determined cathode performance.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Advanced RF Structures for Wakefield Acceleration and High-Gradient Research

Structure wakefield acceleration (SWFA) is one of the most promising AAC schemes in several recent strategic reports, including DOE's 2016 AAC Roadmap, report on the Advanced and Novel Accelerators for High Energy Physics Roadmap (ANAR), and report on Accelerator and Beam Physics Research Goals and Opportunities. SWFA aims to raise the gradient beyond the limits of conventional radiofrequency (RF) accelerator technology, and thus the RF to beam energy efficiency, by reducing RF breakdowns from confining the microwave energy in a short (on the order of about 10 ns) and intense pulse excited by a drive beam. We envision that the following research topics, within the scope of AF7, are of great interest in the next decade: advanced wakefield structures, terahertz and sub-terahertz (THz) structures, and RF breakdown physics. Research on SWFA in the above directions would directly contribute to long-term large-scale applications, including AAC-based linear colliders and compact light sources. There is also potentially a strong synergy between SWFA and other AAC concepts, when structures are combined with plasmas into hybrid AAC schemes. Research on novel structures is at the core of advancing SWFA, and is critical to future AAC-based linear colliders; at the same, it has a strong synergy with other directions, such as cavity designs, high-power microwave systems and sources, and compact light sources.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Continuous and Coordinated Efforts of Structure Wakefield Acceleration (SWFA) Development for an Energy Frontier Machine

Structure wakefield acceleration (SWFA) is well suited for the linear collider (LC) application due to its natural ability to accelerate positrons and preserve emittance. Under the SWFA roadmap, which was developed in response to Snowmass 2013 recommendations, four principal technologies: drive beam, main beam, wakefield structure, and LC facility design, have been investigated. The two SWFA schemes under development are the collinear wakefield accelerator (CWA), in which the drive and main beam follow the same path through a structure, and the two-beam accelerator (TBA), where the drive and main beam pass through different structures. To further advance the SWFA technology in the next decade, continuous and coordinated efforts must be carried out in a more synchronized way. This whitepaper is written to address the research needs in SWFA for preparation of Snowmass 2022.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2021

Ampere-class Bright Field Emission Cathode Operated at 100 MV/m

High current bright sources are needed to power the next generation of compact rf and microwave systems. A major requirement is that such a source could be sustainably operated at high frequencies, well above 1 GHz, and high gradients, well above 100 MV/m. Field emission sources offer simplicity and scalability in a high frequency era of the injector design, but the output rf cycle charge and high gradient operation remain a great and largely unaddressed challenge. Here, a field emission cathode based on ultra-nano-crystalline diamond or UNCD, an efficient planar field emission material, was tested at 100 MV/m in an L-band injector. A very high charge of 38 pC per rf cycle (300 nC per rf pulse corresponding to rf pulse current of 120 mA) was demonstrated. This operating condition revealed a space charge dominated emission from the cathode and revealed a condition under which the 1D Child Langmuir limit was surpassed. Finally, a beam brightness of $\sim 10^{14}-10^{15}$ A/m$^2\times$rad$^2$ was estimated.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2020

FEbeam: Cavity and Electron Emission Data Conversion, Processing and Analysis. A Freeware Toolkit for RF Injectors

FEbeam is a compact field emission data processing interface with the capability to analyze the field emission cathode performance in an rf injector by extracting the field enhancement factor, local field, and effective emission area from the Fowler-Nordheim equations. It also has the capability of processing beam imaging micrographs using its sister software, FEpic. The current version of FEbeam was designed for the Argonne Cathode Teststand (ACT) of the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator facility switch yard. With slight modifications, FEbeam can work for any rf field emission injector. This software is open-source and can be found at https://github.com/schne525/FEbeam

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2020

Rapid thermal emittance and quantum efficiency mapping of a cesium telluride cathode in an rf photoinjector using multiple laser beamlets

Thermal emittance and quantum efficiency (QE) are key figures of merit of photocathodes, and their uniformity is critical to high-performance photoinjectors. Several QE mapping technologies have been successfully developed; however, there is still a dearth of information on thermal emittance maps. This is because of the extremely time-consuming procedure to gather measurements by scanning a small beam across the cathode with fine steps. To simplify the mapping procedure, and to reduce the time required to take measurements, we propose a new method that requires only a single scan of the solenoid current to simultaneously obtain thermal emittance and QE distribution by using a pattern beam with multiple beamlets. In this paper, its feasibility has been confirmed by both beam dynamics simulation and theoretical analysis. The method has been successfully demonstrated in a proof-of-principle experiment using an L-band radiofrequency photoinjector with a cesium telluride cathode. In the experiment, seven beamlets were generated from a microlens array system and their corresponding thermal emittance and QE varied from 0.93 to 1.14 $μ$m/mm and from 4.6 to 8.7%, respectively. We also discuss the limitations and future improvements of the method in this paper.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2019

Systematic benchmarking of planar nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond field emission electron source: rf conditioning and beam spatio-temporal characteristics

Planar nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond, (N)UNCD, has emerged as a unique field emission source attractive for accelerator applications because of its capability to generate high charge beam and handle moderate vacuum conditions. Most importantly, (N)UNCD sources are simple to produce: conventional high aspect ratio isolated emitters are not required to be formed on the surface, and the actual emitter surface roughness is on the order of only 100~nm. Careful reliability assessment of (N)UNCD is required before it may find routine application in accelerator systems. In the present study using an L-band normal conducting single-cell rf gun, a (N)UNCD cathode has been conditioned to $\sim$42~MV/m in a well-controlled manner. It reached a maximum output charge of 15~nC corresponding to an average current of 6~mA during an emission period of 2.5~$μ$s. Imaging of emission current revealed a large number of isolated emitters (density over 100/cm$^{2}$) distributed on the cathode, which is consistent with previous tests in dc environments. The performance metrics, the emission imaging, and the systematic study of emission properties during rf conditioning in a wide gradient range assert (N)UNCD as an enabling electron source for rf injector designs serving industrial and scientific applications. These studies also improve the fundamental knowledge of the practical conditioning procedure via better understanding of emission mechanisms.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2019

Transition radiation in photonic topological crystals: quasi-resonant excitation of robust edge states by a moving charge

We demonstrate, theoretically and experimentally, that a traveling electric charge passing from one photonic crystal into another generates edge waves -- electromagnetic modes with frequencies inside the common photonic bandgap localized at the interface -- via a process of transition edge-wave radiation (TER). A simple and intuitive expression for the TER spectral density is derived and then applied to a specific structure: two interfacing photonic topological insulators with opposite spin-Chern indices. We show that TER breaks the time-reversal symmetry and enables valley- and spin-polarized generation of topologically protected edge waves propagating in one or both directions along the interface. Experimental measurements at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility are consistent with the excitation and localization of the edge waves. The concept of TER paves the way for novel particle accelerators and detectors.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Development and high-power testing of an X-band dielectric-loaded power extractor

Dielectric loaded structures are promising candidates for use in the structure wakefield acceleration (SWFA) technique, for both the collinear wakefield and the two-beam acceleration (CWA and TBA respectively) approaches, due to their low fabrication cost, low rf losses, and the potential to withstand high gradient. A short pulse (<=20 ns) TBA program is under development at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) facility where dielectric loaded structures are being used for both the power extractor/transfer structure (PETS) and the accelerator. In this study, an X-band 11.7 GHz dielectric PETS was developed and tested at the AWA facility to demonstrate high power wakefield generation. The PETS was driven by a train of eight electron bunches separated by 769.2 ps (9 times of the X-band rf period) in order to achieve coherent wakefield superposition. A total train charge of 360 nC was passed through the PETS structure to generate ~200 MW, ~3 ns flat-top rf pulses without rf breakdown. A future experiment is being planned to increase the generated rf power to approximately ~1 GW by optimizing the structure design and improving the drive beam quality.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2019

Experimental demonstration of the correction of coupled transverse dynamics aberration in an rf photoinjector

The production of electron bunches with low transverse emittance approaches the thermal emittance of the photocathode as various aberrations are corrected. Recently, the coupled transverse dynamics aberration was theoretically identified as a significant source of emittance growth and a corrector magnet was proposed for its elimination [D.H. Dowell, F. Zhou, and J. Schmerge, PRAB 21, 010101 (2018)]. This aberration arises when the beam acquires an asymmetric distribution that is then rotated with respect to the transverse reference axis thus introducing a correlation in the vertical and horizontal planes. The asymmetry is introduced by a weak quadrupole field in the rf gun or emittance compensation solenoid and the rotation is caused by the solenoid. This Letter presents an experimental study of the coupled transverse dynamics aberration in an rf photoinjector and demonstrates its elimination by a quadrupole corrector consisting of a normal and a skew quadrupole. The experimental results agree well with theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. The study also demonstrates the emittance of a low charge beam can be preserved during transportation at its thermal value, which was 1.05 mm mrad/mm, for the cesium telluride photocathode and 248 nm UV laser used.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2018

Overestimation of thermal emittance in solenoid scans due to coupled transverse motion

The solenoid scan is a widely used method for the in-situ measurement of the thermal emittance in a photocathode gun. The popularity of this method is due to its simplicity and convenience since all rf photocathode guns are equipped with an emittance compensation solenoid. This paper shows that the solenoid scan measurement overestimates the thermal emittance in the ordinary measurement configuration due to a weak quadrupole field (present in either the rf gun or gun solenoid) followed by a rotation in the solenoid. This coupled transverse dynamics aberration introduces a correlation between the beam's horizontal and vertical motion leading to an increase in the measured 2D transverse emittance, thus the overestimation of the thermal emittance. This effect was systematically studied using both analytic expressions and numerical simulations. These studies were experimentally verified using an L-band 1.6-cell rf photocathode gun with a cesium telluride cathode, which shows a thermal emittance overestimation of 35% with a rms laser spot size of 2.7 mm. The paper concludes by showing that the accuracy of the solenoid scan can be improved by using a quadrupole magnet corrector, consisting of a pair of normal and skew quadrupole magnets.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2016

In situ Observation of Dark Current Emission in a High Gradient RF Photocathode Gun

Undesirable electron field emission (a.k.a. dark current) in high gradient RF photocathode guns deteriorates the quality of photoemission current and limits the operational gradient. To improve the understanding of dark current emission, a high-resolution (~100 um) dark current imaging experiment has been performed in an L-band photocathode gun operating at ~100 MV/m of surface gradient. Dark current from the cathode has been observed to be dominated by several separated strong emitters. The field enhancement factor, beta, of selected regions on the cathode has been measured. The post scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and white light interferometer (WLI) surface examinations reveal the origins of ~75% strong emitters overlap with the spots where rf breakdown have occurred.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2014

Planar Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Field Emitter in Accelerator RF Electron Injector: Performance Metrics

A case performance study of a planar field emission cathode (FEC) based on nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond, (N)UNCD, was carried out in an RF 1.3 GHz electron gun. The FEC was a 100 nm (N)UNCD film grown on a 20 mm diameter stainless steel disk with a Mo buffer layer. At surface gradients 45-65 MV/m, peak currents of 1-80 mA (equivalent to 0.3-25 mA/cm$^2$) were achieved. Imaging with two YAG screens confirmed emission from the (N)UNCD surface with (1) the beam emittance of 1.5 mm$\times$mrad/mm-rms, and (2) longitudinal FWHM and rms energy spread of 0.7% and 11% at an electron energy of 2 MeV. Current stability was tested over the course of 36$\times$10$^3$ RF pulses (equivalent to 288$\times$10$^6$ GHz oscillations).

physics.acc-ph↗