Laguerre-Gaussian and beamlet array as second generation laser heater profiles

The microbunching instability is known to be detrimental to x-ray free electron laser performance. At the Linear Coherent Light Source, the microbunching instability is suppressed with a laser heater, which increases the uncorrelated energy spread of e-beam in the injector. While the current system has been shown to improve x-ray brightness, other laser architectures could further enhance performance. In this study, we model the interaction between a laser and e-beam with arbitrary transverse profiles and examine the effect of various laser designs on the energy distribution of the electrons after the injector and laser heater, as well as their ability to suppress microbunching instability. This simulation incorporates random transverse jitter in order to reproduce physically representative operation of the Linac Coherent Light Source. We compare Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian modes, and explore composite beams in the form of an array of Gaussian beamlets. We conclude that the Gaussian laser profile is highly susceptible to e-beam ellipticity and random transverse jitter. The Laguerre-Gaussian profile, a mathematically ideal solution to suppressing microbunching, is less susceptible to these effects and can provide effective suppression even with a distorted e-beam, though performance can be improved by increasing stabilization. The array of beamlets presents a solution that produces consistent and smooth energy distributions with significantly less variance in heating than the Laguerre-Gaussian profile