New Design Study and Related Experimental Program for the LCLS RF Photoinjector

We report the results of a recent beam dynamics study, motivated by the need to redesign the LCLS photoinjector, that lead to the discovery of a new effective working point for a split RF photoinjector. We consider the emittance compensation regime of a space charge beam: by increasing the solenoid strength, the emittance evolution shows a double minimum behavior in the drifting region. If the booster is located where the relative emittance maximum and the envelope waist occur, the second emittance minimum can be shifted to the booster exit and frozen at a very low level (0.3 mm-mrad for a 1 nC flat top bunch), to the extent that the invariant envelope matching conditions are satisfied. Standing Wave Structures or alternatively Traveling Wave Structures embedded in a Long Solenoid are both candidates as booster linac. A careful measurement of the emittance evolution as a function of position in the drifting region is necessary to verify the computation and to determine experimentally the proper position of the booster cavities. The new design study and supporting experimental program under way at the SLAC Gun Test Facility are discussed.