Emittance compensation in split photoinjectors

The compensation of correlated emittance contributions is of primary importance to optimize the performance of high brightness photoinjectors. While only extended numerical simulations can capture the complex beam dynamics of space-charge-dominated beams in sufficient detail to optimize a specific injector layout, simplified models are required to gain a deeper understanding of the involved dynamics, to guide the optimization procedure, and to interpret experimental results. In this paper, a slice envelope model for the emittance compensation process in a split photoinjector is presented. The emittance term is included in the analytical solution of the beam envelope in a drift, which is essential to take the emittance contribution due to a beam size mismatch into account. The appearance of two emittance minima in the drift is explained, and the matching into the booster cavity is discussed. A comparison with simulation results points out effects which are not treated in the envelope model, such as overfocusing and field nonlinearities.