A microbunching instability driven by coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) in a bunch compressor chicane is studied using an iterative solution of the integral equation that governs this process. By including both one-stage and two-stage amplifications, we obtain analytical expressions for CSR microbunching that are valid in both low-gain and high-gain regimes. These formulas can be used to explore the dependence of CSR microbunching on compressed beam current, energy spread, and emittance, and to design stable bunch compressors required for an x-ray free-electron laser.

• Received 25 April 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.5.074401

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