Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is developing design concepts for a multi-beamline soft xray FEL array powered by a superconducting linear accelerator, operating with a high bunch repetition rate of approximately one MHz. Electron bunches supplied by a high-brightness, high-repetition-rate photocathode electron gun are distributed by a beam spreader, designed to deliver individual bunches from a CW linac to an array of independently configurable FEL beamlines with nominal bunch rates up to 100 kHz in each FEL, and with even pulse spacing. We describe recent developments in the technical choices, design and parameters of the spreader system and its main components.