Tunable Achromats and CLIC Applications

It is imperative for linear colliders that the bunch length be adjustable. In most cases bunch compression is required, but recently, in the design of the Compact LInear Collider (CLIC) RF Power Source, it was shown that bunch stretching may also be necessary. In some situations, both modes may be needed, which implies the need for tunable magnetic insertions. This is even more essential in a test facility, to span a wide experimental range. In addition, flexible tuning provides a better control of the stability of an isochronous insertion. To start a numerical search for a tunable insertion from scratch is very uncertain because the related phase space is very uneven. However, a starting point obtained with an analytical approximation is often sufficient to ensure convergence. Another advantage of the analytical treatment described in this paper is that it sheds light on the shape of the entire phase space. To achieve this the isochronous achromat developed previously has been given tuning capabilities by expanding the expressions obtained for its main parameters. An application to the future CLIC Test Facility (CTF3) is shown.