Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy A proposal for an improved laser system for the CEBAF photo-injector. John Hansknecht Electron Gun Group

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 2 A timeline of laser systems at Jlab Feb A 5mW He-Ne laser source produced the first photo emitted beam at Jlab. The beam was “DC” and the chopper “chopped” the beam for the three halls. There was no “tune” mode and viewer limited mode was achieved by inserting a neutral density filter on a pneumatic cylinder to reduce laser power. Pros: We made polarized beam! Cons: 1.Most of the beam produced was thrown away on the chopper. 2.Controls were not suited for production beam.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page April JLab source group, under the guidance of Dr. Charles Sinclair, was the first in the world to demonstrate high frequency polarized synchronous photoinjection from GaAs. The laser driving the gun was “state of the art”. A diode laser was rf gain-switched at 1497 MHz and subsequently amplified by a tapered-stripe laser diode amplifier [1]. The laser provided tune and viewer limited pulse structures. These “Macro-pulses” were relatively easy to create electronically and met the requirements necessary for all beam diagnostics. This laser system was subsequently copied by other labs for use on their electron guns. [1] M. Poelker, Appl. Phys. Lett., 67, 2762 (1995).

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 4 The 1996 CEBAF Laser Table

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page Laser Pulse Structure Pros: Better photocathode lifetime vs. beam from a “DC” laser. Gain switching was simple. Cons: “All for One & One for All” The chopper is still required to intercept beam for amplitude control. The current drawn from the photocathode needed to be 3 times the current requested by the highest current hall. Wavelength not tunable. Diodes and amplifiers were only available at two important wavelength ranges.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page Diode Laser system improvements The diode laser system was modified to provide 3 separate lasers, each pulsed at 499MHz and phased 120° apart. Space constraints forced the source group to design a new compact “seeded amplifier”. This design change was also needed to provide the ability to quickly swap lasers among the two wavelength selections.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page Laser Table schematic

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 8 Key points for 3 laser operations Beam combining methods

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page laser table (open in lab)

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page Laser Pulse Structure Beam amplitude is customized for the specific halls at the laser rather than at the chopper. Individual hall laser can be shut-off if hall does not want beam. Individual Tune and viewer limited modes. Most efficient use of the precious resource of electrons. - Longest lifetime of photocathode. Beam is now being routinely delivered for physics from Bulk GaAs T-Gun Broken.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page and 1998 New problems introduced: ASE (Amplified Spontaneous Emission) is not our friend: 1. leakage to unintended hall 2. Polarization dilution 3. Tune mode cross-talk Laser powers of individual lasers are subsequently dropped to limit ASE. We are laser power limited further than before. Beam coincidence Vendor delivery problems Dripping sweat kills lasers Changes are needed… soon 100uA 35% polarization delivered to HAPPEX from Bulk GaAs

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page brings major changes Vertical Gun replaced with 2 horizontal guns (no more kneeling on the floor for laser work) An air-conditioned laser hut (inexpensive plastic curtain) is constructed to contain the laser table. (no more sweat dripping on the lasers) Safety – No more vertical laser beam. Ti-Sapphire lasers are in testing phase. New Strained layer photo-cathodes require 10X more power than bulk GaAs for same current. We are severely power limited. No real changes to lasers other than physical layout. 50uA 70% polarization delivered to HAPPEX from Strained GaAs

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page Ready for some serious physics now

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page laser table schematic

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 15 Y2K – Introducing the Actively-modelocked Ti-Sapphire laser (another first) Jlab Patented Technology – C. Hovater, M. Poelker (C. Hovater and M. Poelker Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 418 (1998) )

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 16 Y2K- Actively modelocked Ti-Sapphire laser schematic Jlab Patented Technology – C. Hovater, M. Poelker

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 17 Y2K laser table schematic

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 18 Y2K Laser System Pros: Ti-Sapphire laser is wavelength tunable to reach peak polarization of photo-cathode material Ti-Sapphire laser provides high power as compared to diode laser systems - (can deliver more Coulombs between cathode activations) Ti-Sapphire laser has no ASE Nov Delivered high current and high polarization to two halls simultaneously. (GEn & GEp) This would not have been possible without the new Ti-Sapphire laser.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 19 Y2K Laser System Cons: Ti-Sapphire lasers are extremely sensitive to alignment and cleanliness. 1um changes of cavity will affect lock. Small changes in room temperature will change alignment of the cavity. The cavity length sets the fundamental repetition rate of the cavity. Injection modelocking relies on many parameters being “perfect” to achieve a good pulse structure on the output. If laser phase lock is lost, the beam can be sent to the wrong hall(s). Phase noise makes e- beam difficult to transport Difficult to produce a “Tune” structure. Diode used: colinearity, phase differences and amplitude differences caused problems. Laser “on-call” is a full time job

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 20 2 Halls from 1 Ti-Sapphire Laser (Nov 2000)

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page Laser System g0 preps

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page New technology available- (SESAM technology) Commercial Ti- Sapphire laser that provides superior reliability and performance over our injection-seeded and AOM mode-locked Ti-Sapphire lasers. g0 31MHz experiment would not have been successful were it not for this laser. Laser was so successful that we purchased several for 499MHz as well. Laser table controls upgraded to provide fine control for the correction of current and position asymmetries.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page – Present Laser Table

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 24 Enhancements

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page A Safer and Cleaner environment

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 26 Current Standings Pros: The year is The injector is generally not the source of problems for the accelerator. The injector is providing the highest polarization, highest current synchronous photo-injected beam ever delivered in the world. We are now capable of delivering parity quality beam to 3 experiments simultaneously. (sort of) The injector area is Safe, Clean, and Cool A new load-locked gun is coming soon that will allow rapid exchange of previously prepared photo-cathodes. Cons: The source group has lost several key personnel and the present budget does not support replacement. Innovation & improvements now take a back seat to maintenance of the existing system. Everything takes longer. Although the Time-Bandwidth Products, Inc lasers are vastly superior to our previous lasers, they are still temperamental and require an expert to maintain.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 27 Laser Specific issues that need to be addressed 1.Wavelength tunability and time required for changes 2.Phase noise & phase lock 3.Vendor spares 4.Beam Colinearity 5.Polarization dilution 6.Tune mode quality 7.Parity system quality GHz stable laser for Accelerator tuning has been requested 9.Laser Power limit 10.Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) 11.Laser sensitivity to its environment and laser safety. 12.Time consumed to replace lasers 13.Only 2 Laser “experts” in the group. 14.Need to align multiple items on laser table. 15.Confusion to operators when lasers are changed and have different performance characteristics.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 28 Let’s build a new laser system from scratch. Our first point of action is to select a wavelength. Our recent success with the “super-lattice” cathodes proves that 780nM is ideal for high polarization and excellent QE. We are sticking with this decision and will place this cathode material in both guns, so our laser system will deliver 780nM light. (scratch #1 from the list) We liked our gain-switched diode technique because of its phase noise and phase lock attributes. Let’s start with three laser “seeds” and gain switch them. (scratch # 2 from the list) We will be using lasers and fiber laser amplifiers designed for the cable TV and communications industry. (scratch #3 from the list) We are going to use new fiber laser technologies that allow us to combine all lasers in a single fiber with identical polarization and collinear travel. (scratch #4 and #5 from the list) We will use fiber-based electro-optic modulators with GHz bandwidth, so we should be able to produce any desired tune mode or other modulation on the beam with high quality. (scratch #6 and #7 from the list)

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 29 New laser system design. Lets see what we have so far. Pre-Amp

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 30 More design thoughts Since combining these lasers appear to be so easy, let’s throw in a fourth laser at GHz. We will use a fiber based MEMS optical switch to efficiently swap from the 3 laser system (500MHz) to the single GHz laser with the press of a button. (and scratch # 8 from the list)

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 31 Laser system design continued: Pre-Amp

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 32 Now we need some Power Thus far our system has four lasers that provide clean gain-switched light. We need to amplify it further to get sufficient power for operations. Erbium-Ytterbium fiber laser amplifiers are now commercially available. Their power level capabilities have been growing exponentially over the past few years. They will meet our immediate demand (for a price), but will become more powerful and cheaper as the technology and market demand grows. Previous worries about delivering quality single-mode TEM00 beam from a fiber are gone. New “Panda” fiber designs transmit pure single mode beam without worry. We are specifying an amplifier that should triple our present deliverable laser power. (scratch # 9 from the list)

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 33 The final pieces of the system

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 34 The final system operation Light was produced with proper pulse structure, intensity control, modulation control. Light from all lasers was amplified and some ASE is present in amplified 1560nM light. Non-linear Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) crystal is used to frequency double the light from 1560nM down to 780nM. Non-linear gain of SHG crystal will cut off and not pass the low levels of ASE. (scratch 10 from the list) Light for all halls through the SHG crystal is linearly polarized and perfectly round. Now we can place a LP optic immediately before the helicity control “Pockels Cell” to obtain the highest purity polarization possible. All components are designed with quick disconnect polarization maintaining fiber connectors. When connected there are no laser safety issues except for the area of the fiber to air launch to the SHG crystal and subsequent beam delivery optics. An “expert” can be anyone with training on the system. (scratch the entire list)

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 35 Final laser system operation continued: The commercial fiber lasers, amplifiers and modulators often come with monitoring ports installed. There will be multiple points within the system to verify system operation and laser beam quality. We will be producing much more light than is needed, so we will now be able to afford placing fast photo-diodes and power taps at the output for phase feedback monitoring and control The system will consist of 19” rack mounted drawers that can easily be interlocked to power off when the lid is opened and thus eliminate any laser hazard. The main laser system could be remotely located (upstairs in the service building) and the main delivery fiber can be fed to the tunnel through a conduit. Operators will be able to select any laser for any hall. There will no longer be any confusion over the capabilities of a given laser.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 36 System is compact and easy to swap components

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 37 Possible Pitfalls This is pure R&D. To the best of our knowledge it has never been done before and may not work exactly as planned. Communications laser companies are making big $$ from communications users. They have no interest in pursuing our little project, but have been helpful in offering to sell us components. There is a possibility that our mode of operation and PSS/FSD protection could change. Example: If ASE passes amplifier when a given Hall is in Beam Sync, we would need to secure all halls by securing the main laser amplifier until the chopper slit could be fully inserted. This would be very similar to how we used to run the thermionic beam. We may find temperature induced phase or mode variations in the fiber system that we have never experienced before in a free space system. The halls will lose their ability to independently move a PZT mirror for their hall. It is envisioned that one PZT mirror would serve all halls and the 30Hz PZT functions.

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 38 Laser system wide view

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 39 Fiber laser launch on table

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 40 What’s next? Matt Poelker and I will be performing laser studies and procuring components. Our group is short staffed and we need another PhD. One might consider finding one with experience on fiber lasers. We need input as early as possible from anyone who has any special needs for the beam. (i.e. special modulation schemes) So these can be designed into the system. If we want a quality product in the shortest amount of time we will need to form a team that consists of: 1. Electrical engineering support 2. Software support (drivers and screens) 3. EECAD and FAB support 4. Rf Engineering support 5. PSS/MPS system support and…………….

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 41 Actually much less, but we do need the labs commitment for funding of the project…. One Million Dollars! Which we shall call… “The Alan Parsons Project”

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 42 Actual cost rough analysis (optical components) $15K to 30K

Operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association for the U.S. Department of Energy Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Page 43 Rough cost analysis $57K $6K