Study of beam loading and its compensation in the Compact Ultrafast Terahertz Free-Electron Laser injector linac

The RF properties of an accelerating structure, and the pulse structure and charge per bunch in the electron beam propagating through it are important parameters that determine the impact of beam loading in the structure. The injector linac of the Compact Ultrafast Terahertz Free-Electron Laser (CUTE-FEL) has been operated with two different pulse structures during initial commissioning experiments and the effect of beam loading on the accelerated electron beam parameters has been studied analytically for these two pulse structures. This paper discusses the analytical study of beam loading in a Standing Wave, Plane Wave Transformer linac employed in the CUTE-FEL setup, and a possible technique for its compensation for the electron beam parameters of the CUTE-FEL. A parametric study has been performed to study beam loading for different beam currents and to optimize injection time of the electron beam to compensate beam loading. Results from the parametric study have also been used to explain previously observed results from acceleration experiments in the CUTE-FEL setup.