Slice emittance measurements at the SLAC gun test facility

A goal of the Gun Test Facility (GTF) at SLAC is to investigate the production of high-brightness electron beams for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray FEL. High brightness in the RF photocathode gun occurs when the time-sliced emittance is nearly the same as the cathode thermal emittance and when the slices are all lined up, i.e., their Twiss parameters are nearly identical. In collaboration with the BNL Source Development Lab (SDL), we have begun a systematic study of the slice emittance at GTF. The technique involves giving the bunch a near linear energy chirp using the booster linac and dispersing it with a magnetic spectrometer. Combined with knowledge of the longitudinal phase space, this establishes the energy-time correlation on the spectrometer screen. The slice emittances are determined by varying the strengths of the quadrupoles in front of the spectrometer. Spectrometer images for a range of quadrupole settings are then binned into small energy/time windows and analysed for the slice emittance and Twiss parameters. Results for various gun parameters are presented. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.