The SwissFEL Injector Test Facility operated at the Paul Scherrer Institute between 2010 and 2014, serving as a pilot plant and testbed for the development and realization of SwissFEL, the X-ray Free-Electron Laser facility under construction at the same institute. The test facility consisted of a laser-driven rf electron gun followed by an S-band booster linac, a magnetic bunch compression chicane and a diagnostic section including a transverse deflecting rf cavity. It delivered electron bunches of up to 200 pC charge and up to 250 MeV beam energy at a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The measurements performed at the test facility not only demonstrated the beam parameters required to drive the first stage of an FEL facility, but also led to significant advances in instrumentation technologies, beam characterization methods and the generation, transport and compression of ultra-low-emittance beams. We give a comprehensive overview of the commissioning experience of the principal subsystems and the beam physics measurements performed during the operation of the test facility, including the results of the test of an in-vacuum undulator prototype generating radiation in the vacuum ultraviolet and optical range.

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Elastic and inelastic scattering of 14.4-MeV protons from isotopically enriched targets of ^s.so'pi W ere studied. Angular distributions for many groups separated by more than 40 keV were obtained. The data were analyzed using the coupled-channel calculation. The vibrational collective model was used to describe the states of the bombarded nucleus. Several octupole states were found in both 46 Ti and 48 Ti but only one in 50 Ti. These results were compared with the results of a-particle scattering on the same nuclei. It was found that a discrepancy exists between the results of the experiments in the magnitudes of the deformabilities obtained for the octupole states. Spins and parities of some states in 48 Ti and 50 Ti were suggested. Electromagnetic transition rates were inferred from the deformabilities deduced from inelastic scattering data.