RTP Pockels Cell with Nanometer-Level Position Control

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel RTP Pockels cell design with nanometer-level position control, enabling precise polarization switching for high-precision electron scattering experiments like MOLLER.

Contribution

The paper introduces an innovative RTP Pockels cell design that uses electric field gradients to counteract crystal non-uniformities, achieving nanometer-level beam steering control.

Findings

Successfully demonstrated nm-level beam steering control.

Enabled high-precision polarization switching at Jefferson Laboratory.

Supported current and future high-precision experiments like PREX II and MOLLER.

Abstract

MOLLER is a future experiment designed to measure parity violation in Moller scattering to extremely high precision. MOLLER will measure the right-left scattering differential cross-section parity-violating asymmetry APV , in the elastic scattering of polarized electrons off an unpolarized LH2 target to extreme ppb precision. To make this measurement, the polarized electron source, generated with a circularly polarized laser beam, must have the ability to switch quickly between right and left helicity polarization states. The polarized source must also maintain minimal right-left helicity correlated beam asymmetries, including energy changes, position changes, intensity changes, or spot-size changes. These requirements can be met with appropriate choice and design of the Pockels cell used to generate the circularly polarized light. Rubidium Titanyl Phosphate (RTP) has been used in recent years for ultra-fast Pockels cell switches due to its lack of piezo-electric resonances at frequencies up to several hundred MHz. However, crystal non-uniformity in this material leads to poorer extinction ratios than in commonly used KD*P Pockels cells when used in hald-wave configuration. It leads to voltage dependent beam steering when used in quarter-wave configuration. Here we present an innovative RTP Pockels cell design which uses electric field gradients to counteract crystal non-uniformities and control beam steering down to the nm-level. We demonstrate this RTP Pockels cell design is capable of producing precisely controlled polarized electron beam at Jefferson Laboratory, a national accelerator facility, for current experiments, including the recent PREX II measurement, as well as the future MOLLER experiment.