A User-Friendly, Modular Simulation Tool for Laser-Electron Beam Interactions

Present day simulation tools for the accelerator community have a narrow focus on specific problems and have unwieldy command-line driven inputs. In addition, to produce relevant results, the results of one program have to be fed into another, increasing the possibility of errors in the translation between different file formats. The proposed code is built in a modular fashion, to allow varying sub-routines and element classes that can be integrated into an intuitive and user-friendly interface. This will increase user productivity in delivering solutions in accelerator system design. In Phase I, we developed a wave front transport module, a beam generation and transport module, and incorporated support for select external codes for use in start-to-end simulations. We also developed an algorithm for generic laser-electron beam interactions. In Phase II, we will expand our physics modules to include enhanced laser-electron beam interaction modules, such as inverse Compton scattering and inverse free-electron laser. We will focus on providing an intuitive interface that can handle start-to-end simulations for more codes. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The results of the efforts will find immediate utility in present accelerator and light source facilities which have direct impact on industrial, medical, defense and basic research applications.