The numerical solution of the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation is a well established method to simulate the dynamics, including the self-interaction with its own wake field, of an electron bunch in a storage ring. In this paper we present Inovesa, a modularly extensible program that uses opencl to massively parallelize the computation. It allows a standard desktop PC to work with appropriate accuracy and yield reliable results within minutes. We provide numerical stability-studies over a wide parameter range and compare our numerical findings to known results. Simulation results for the case of coherent synchrotron radiation will be compared to measurements that probe the effects of the microbunching instability occurring in the short bunch operation at ANKA. It will be shown that the impedance model based on the shielding effect of two parallel plates can not only describe the instability threshold, but also the presence of multiple regimes that show differences in the emission of coherent synchrotron radiation.

Dedicated optics with extremely short electron bunches enable synchrotron light sources to generate intense coherent THz radiation. The high degree of spatial compression in this so-called low-${\alpha }_c$ optics entails a complex longitudinal dynamics of the electron bunches, which can be probed studying the fluctuations in the emitted terahertz radiation caused by the microbunching instability (“bursting”). This article presents a “quasi-instantaneous” method for measuring the bursting characteristics by simultaneously collecting and evaluating the information from all bunches in a multibunch fill, reducing the measurement time from hours to seconds. This speed-up allows systematic studies of the bursting characteristics for various accelerator settings within a single fill of the machine, enabling a comprehensive comparison of the measured bursting thresholds with theoretical predictions by the bunched-beam theory. This paper introduces the method and presents first results obtained at the ANKA synchrotron radiation facility.

Electron accelerators and synchrotrons can be operated to provide short emission pulses due to longitudinally compressed or substructured electron bunches. Above a threshold current, the high charge density leads to the microbunching instability and the formation of substructures on the bunch shape. These time-varying substructures on bunches of picoseconds-long duration lead to bursts of coherent synchrotron radiation in the terahertz frequency range. Therefore, the spectral information in this range contains valuable information about the bunch length, shape and substructures. Based on the KAPTURE readout system, a 4-channel single-shot THz spectrometer capable of recording 500 million spectra per second and streaming readout is presented. First measurements of time-resolved spectra are compared to simulation results of the Inovesa Vlasov-Fokker-Planck solver. The presented results lead to a better understanding of the bursting dynamics especially above the micro-bunching instability threshold.

At KARA, the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology synchrotron, the so-called short-bunch operation mode allows the reduction of the bunch length down to a few picoseconds. The microbunching instability resulting from the high degree of longitudinal compression leads to fluctuations in the emitted terahertz radiation, referred to as bursting. For extremely compressed bunches at KARA, bursting occurs not only in one but in two different bunch-current ranges that are separated by a stable region. This work presents measurements of the thresholds and bursting frequencies in both regimes. Good agreement is found between the data and numerical solutions of the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation.

The behavior of submicrometer-sized thin-film $\hbox{YBa}_{2}\hbox{Cu}_{3}\hbox{O}_{7-{\rm x}}$ (YBCO) detectors under illumination with picosecond terahertz (THz) pulses was investigated. Real-time measurements with a temporal resolution of 15 ps full width at half maximum were performed at ANKA, the synchrotron facility of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and the UVSOR-III facility at the Institute for Molecular Science in Okazaki, Japan. The capability of YBCO detectors to reproduce the shape of a several picosecond long THz pulse was demonstrated. Single-shot measurements adhering to a reversal of the direction of the electrical field of the THz radiation were carried out. They provided evidence for the electrical field sensitivity of the YBCO detector. Exploiting the electrical field sensitivity of the YBCO detector, the effect of microbunching was observed at UVSOR-III.