Studies of the beam-ion instability and its mitigation with feedback system

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive simulation model to study beam-ion interactions in electron accelerators, revealing conditions under which ion-induced instabilities occur and how feedback systems can mitigate them.

Contribution

A new numerical simulation code incorporating various effects was created to analyze beam-ion interactions without separating ion trapping and fast ion effects.

Findings

Beam-ion instability is significant at low beam currents.

Feedback systems effectively mitigate the instability.

In high-current operation, the instability is less dominant.

Abstract

The beam-ion interaction is a potential limitation of beam performance in electron accelerators, especially where the beam emittance is of a great concern in future ultra-low emittance light source. "Conventionally", the beam instability due to beam-ion interaction is attributed to two types of effects: ion trapping effect and fast ion effect, which emphasize the beam-ion dynamics in different time scales. Whereas, in accelerators, the beam suffers from a mixture of ion trapping effect and fast ion effect, leading to a more complicated process and requiring a self-consistent treatment. To evaluate the beam characteristics, as emittance growth under the influence from beam-ion effect, a new numerical simulation code based on the "quasi-strong-strong" model has been developed, including modules of ionization, beam-ion interaction, synchrotron radiation damping, quantum excitation, bunch-by-bunch feedback, etc. In the study, we do not regularly distinguish the ion trapping effect and the fast ion effect, but treat beam-ion interaction more generally and consistently. The lattice of High Energy Photon Source, a diffraction limit ring under construction in Beijing, is used as an example to show the beam-ion effect. It is found that in this low emittance ring, the beam-ion instability is not a dominant mechanism in operation mode with a high beam current, but seriously occurs in a lower beam current region. When the beam-ion instability were significantly driven and can not be damped by the synchrotron radiation damping, the simulations show the bunch-by-bunch feedback system based on the Finite Impulse Response filter technique can be adopted to mitigate it effectively.