Implementation of Radio-Frequency Deflecting Devices for Comprehensive High-Energy Electron Beam Diagnosis

In next-generation light sources, high-brightness electron beams are used in a free-electron laser configuration to produce light for use by scientists and engineers in numerous fields of research. High-brightness beams are described for such light sources as having low transverse and longitudinal emittances, high peak currents, and low slice emittance and energy spread. The optimal generation and preservation of such high-brightness electron beams during the acceleration process and propagation to and through the photon-producing element is imperative to the quality and performance of the light source. To understand the electron beam’s phase space in the accelerating section of a next-generation light source machine, we employed radio-frequency cavities operating in a deflecting mode in conjunction with a magnetic spectrometer and imaging system for both low (250 MeV) and high (1.2 GeV) electron energies. This high-resolution, high-energy system is an essential diagnostic for the optimization and control of the electron beam in the FERMI light source generating fully transversely and longitudinally coherent light in the VUV to soft x-ray wavelength regimes. This device is located at the end of the linear accelerator in order to provide the longitudinal phase space nearest to the entrance of the photon-producing beam-lines. Here, we describe the design, fabrication, characterization, commissioning, and operational implementation of this transverse deflecting cavity structure diagnostic system for the high-energy (1.2 GeV) regime.