Space Charge Dominated Beam Transport for THz Studies at PITZ

A proof-of-principle experiment for a THz SASE FEL is undergoing preparation at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY in Zeuthen (PITZ), as a prototype THz source for pump-probe experiments at the European XFEL, which could potentially provide up to mJ/pulse THz radiation while maintaining the identical pulse train structure as the XFEL pulses. One key design is to obtain a peak current of nearly 200 A from the heavily charged bunches of a few nC, which is then sent to an LCLS-I type undulator for THz generation in the SASE regime. Challenges such as the generation, transport and matching of the space charge dominated beam will be addressed in this contribution. Experimental results on the generation, characterization and matching of the beam will also be presented