Girder Support Scheme for the LCLS Undulator System

Differential settlement of the foundation of the LCLS Undulator Hall will cause quadrupoles to move and the electron beam trajectory to distort. The resulting phase errors will decrease the FEL power and require time consuming beam-based alignment sessions to correct. By supporting quadrupoles on girders, with three quadrupoles to a girder, the foundation motion induced phase error between the beam and the X Ray radiation can be reduced by a factor of 5 compared with supporting each quadrupole with a separate column. This comes about because the motions of three quadrupoles on a girder are linearly correlated so their effect on the beam is largely canceled out. Thus a girder support scheme can significantly help to extend the time between required beam based alignments and contribute to a more stable operation of the LCLS FEL beam.