2-D Modeling of Energy-z Beam Dynamics Using the LiTrack Matlab Program

Short bunches and the bunch length distribution have important consequences for both the LCLS project at SLAC and the proposed ILC project. For both these projects, it is important to simulate what bunch length distributions are expected and then to perform actual measurements. The goal of the research is to determine the sensitivity of the bunch length distribution to accelerator phase and voltage. This then indicates the level of control and stability that is needed. In this project I simulated beamlines to find the rms bunch length in three different beam lines at SLAC, which are the test beam to End Station A (ILC-ESA) for the ILC studies, Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and LCLS-ESA. To simulate the beamlines, I used the LiTrack program, which does a 2-dimensional tracking of an electron bunch's longitudinal (z) and the energy spread beam (E) parameters. In order to reduce the time of processing the information, I developed a small program to loop over adjustable machine parameters. LiTrack is a Matlab script and Matlab is also used for plotting and saving and loading files. The results show that the LCLS in Linac-A is the most sensitive when looking at the ratio of change in phase degree to rate of change. The results also show a noticeable difference between the LCLS and LCLS-ESA, which suggest that further testing should go into looking the Beam Switch Yard and End Station A to determine why the result of the LCLS and LCLS-ESA vary