Operation and performance of bunch precompression for increased current transmission at the SLC

As the beam currents at the SLC are increased, transverse aperture restrictions in the ring-to-linac transport line (RTL) become increasingly important. The RTL contains a bunch compressor which introduces a large energy variation across the bunch and hence a larger transverse beam size. Since 1994 the compressor amplitude has been operating at higher than design voltage. While advantageous for shaping the bunch distribution, this increased the bunch energy spread and therefore resulted in more beam loss. Moreover, due to current-dependent bunch lengthening in the damping ring, the higher the beam current, the more the current loss. To avoid such losses, the bunch length may be precompressed in the damping ring. Until recently, bunch precompression with high beam currents was not stable. In this paper we identify the reasons for the difficulties, describe the changes made to accomodate bunch precompression, and discuss performance aspects after implementation. The estimated increase in current at the interaction point is 15%