Performance analysis of the prototype THz-driven electron gun for the AXSIS project

TL;DR

This paper evaluates a prototype THz-driven electron gun for the AXSIS project, combining experimental tests and simulations to understand its performance in generating high-energy electrons for compact X-ray sources.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison between experimental results and simulations of a THz-driven electron gun, highlighting fabrication and operational variations.

Findings

The gun accelerates electrons up to tens of keV.

Simulations help explain performance deviations.

Fabrication variations impact gun operation.

Abstract

The AXSIS project (Attosecond X-ray Science: Imaging and Spectroscopy) aims to develop a THz-driven compact X-ray source for applications e.g. in chemistry and biology by using ultrafast coherent diffraction imaging and spectroscopy. The key components of AXSIS are the THz-driven electron gun and THz-driven dielectric loaded linear accelerator as well as an inverse Compton scattering scheme for the X-rays production. This paper is focused on the prototype of the THz-driven electron gun which is capable of accelerating electrons up to tens of keV. Such a gun was manufactured and tested at the test-stand at DESY. Due to variations in gun fabrication and generation of THz-fields the gun is not exactly operated at design parameters. Extended simulations have been performed to understand the experimentally observed performance of the gun. A detailed comparison between simulations and experimental measurements is presented in this paper.