Low Alpha Experiments at the ALS

We present a modified, low alpha lattice for the Advanced Light Source where the quadrupole field strengths have been detuned to allow the momentum compaction factor to be varied smoothly from positive to negative values. With this low alpha lattice we decrease the momentum compaction factor by a factor of 5, to 0.0003 over normal operation, resulting in a measured bunch length reduction by a factor of 2. We also measure the size of the second‐order momentum compaction factor as well as store beam in a negative momentum compaction lattice. Streak camera measurements at positive and negative momentum compaction operation show longitudinal beam profile distributions that are in agreement with simulations by Fang et al. (8).