Operation of the high brightness LINAC for the advanced free-electron laser initiative at Los Alamos

Free-electron lasers and high-energy physics accelerators have increased the demand for very high-brightness beam sources. This paper describes the design of an accelerator which has produced beams of 2.1 π mm-mrad at 1 nC and emittances of 3.7 and 6.5 π mm-mrad for 2 and 3 nC, respectively. The accelerator has been operated between 10 and 18 MeV. The beam emittance growth in the accelerator is minimized by using a photoinjector electron source integrated into the design of the linac, a focusing solenoid to correct the emittance growth caused by space charge, and a special design of the coupling slots between accelerator cavities to minimize quadrupole effects