Optimal focusing for a linac-based hard x-ray source

In spite of having a small average beam current limit, a linac can have features that make it attractive as an x-ray source: high energy, ultralow emittance and energy spread, and flexible beamline optics. Unlike a storage ring, in which an (undulator) radiation source is necessarily short and positioned at an electron beam waist, in a linac the undulator can be long and the electron beam can be adjusted to have a (virtual) waist far downstream toward the x-ray target. Using a planned CEBAF beamline as an example, this paper shows that a factor of 2000 in beam current can be overcome to produce a monochromatic hard x-ray source comparable with, or even exceeding, the performance of an x-ray line at a third generation storage ring. Optimal electron beam focusing conditions for x-ray flux density and brilliance are derived, and are verified by simulations using the SRW code