Ultra-short electron bunch generation by an ECC rf gun

Energy Chirping Cell attached rf gun (ECC rf gun) is a photocathode rf gun specialized for ultra-short bunch generation. This ECC rf gun has been made with the collaboration of High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) [1] [2]. Although the bunch length could be controlled by the laser pulse width, the bunch length ends up to be more than 1 ps due to space charge effect when using a femto-second laser and a normal 1.6 cell cavity. Concerning this phenomenon, ECC is attached right after the 1.6 cell so that the electron bunch would be compressed after the electron bunch is accelerated around 5 MeV. The roll of ECC is to chirp the energy with the linear part of the rf electric field. The electron bunch would be compressed by velocity difference as it drifts. Simulation results from PARMELA and GPT show that the ECC rf gun can accelerate an 100 pC bunch with the bunch length less than 100 fs. We already manufactured this ECC rf gun and installed in our system. We demonstrated the ultra-short bunch by measuring the coherent THz light by synchrotron radiation and transition radiation. In this conference, we will report the results of ultra-short bunch generation experiments, and future plans.