Effects of linac wakefield on CSR microbunching in the Linac Coherent Light Source

The design of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) requires two-stage bunch compression for stability against timing and charge jitters. Coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) induced in these bunch compressors can drive a microbunching instability that may degrade the beam brightness. In this paper, we study effects of the longitudinal wakefield in the accelerator on this instability. We show that significant energy modulation can be accumulated in the linac through the geometrical wakefield and can enhance the CSR microbunching in these compressors. Analytical calculations are compared with numerical simulations to evaluate the gain of microbunching for the entire LCLS accelerator system.