STFC

Accelerator Timing Monitor with Femtosecond Precision

Trainee: Rui Pan
Supervisor: Steven Jamison

‌The next generation of accelerators require unprecedented stability and precision in the synchronization of free-electron lasers, laser wakefields and time-resolved spectroscopy. Leading technological techniques to providing such precision is based on laser optical clocks and actively stabilised optical fibre distribution systems. These deliver better than 5 femtosecond stability and are advancing rapidly towards the attosecond regime. The Electron Beam Test Facility (EBTF) is a new accelerator with a high performance, modular injector currently being built at Daresbury Laboratory, which will deliver a capability for the cutting edge development of advanced accelerator systems.

‌The fellow will join the Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC) Lasers and Diagnostics Group on developing a high stability optical synchronisation system for advanced accelerators. The PhD project will aim to develop single-shot techniques for measuring the arrival time of electron bunches and high power lasers with respect to optical clock pulses. The use of nonlinear optical materials with ultrafast response times will be targeted to achieve femtosecond level precision in determining arrival times, and the arrival time monitors will form a critical part of the optical timing system. The project will be a mixture of theoretical and experimental activities, requiring an understanding of the physics of non-linear optics and short pulse propagation, and apply this understanding to practical experimental tests. The student will have the opportunity install and carry out tests of arrival monitoring concepts on the EBTF accelerator.

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