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

Laser-electron beam interactions have numerous applications in light sources and advanced accelerator facilities yet the tools to model such interactions are decoupled requiring stringing the input/output of many codes to retrieve significant results. In addition, these codes are very specialized with steep learning curves and rarely provide an intuitive user interface for ease in navigability. A modular simulation tool based on fundamental principles will address the start-to-end simulation downfalls by incorporating parsers for the most widely trusted codes. The tool will also include a module specific to laser-electron beam interactions, such as free-electron laser modulators or inverse Compton sources, with an experimentalists viewpoint to model diagnostic observables.Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The code will offer the advanced accelerator and light source communities a flexible, inexpensive tool to aid in solving real-life problems dealing with laser-electron beam interactions. Furthermore, the code will be flexible and accessible, allowing for intuitive education of students and researchers who are interested in accelerator design, advanced acceleration schemes, radiation production, and beam dynamics. The code will offer a cost-effective way to aid in the one-to-one comparison of measured data to theoretical results, saving millions of dollars in commissioning and operations expenditures by providing the ability to run virtual experiments with proposed diagnostics and measurements