VFEL lasing in system with dynamical undulator is described. In this system radiation of long wavelength creates the undulator for lasing on shorter wavelength. Two diffraction gratings with different spatial periods form VFEL resonator. The grating with longer period pumps the resonator with long wavelength radiation to provide necessary amplitude of undulator field. The grating with shorter period makes mode selection for short wavelength radiation. Lasing of such a system in terahertz frequency range is discussed.
Use of non one-dimensional distributed feedback in VFEL gives possibility of frequency tuning in wide range. In present work dependence of lasing process on the angle between resonant diffraction grating grooves and direction of electron beam velocity is discussed.
The generation of induced radiation in volume resonator formed by metal threads is considered. It is shown that using of such volume diffraction grating allows increasing of lasing efficiency in terahertz range. The requirements on beam and grating parameters are obtained.
The idea and principles of volume free electron lasers were proposed in [1-4]. It was shown there that volume distributed feedback (VDFB) can essentially reduce the threshold current of generation and provide the possibility of smooth frequency tuning. The present work considers an undulator VFEL with multiwave VDFB. It is shown that dependence of threshold current on the interaction length changes in the point of roots degeneration. This leads to the sharp decrease of start current if condition of dynamical diffraction is fulfilled. The dependence of amplification coefficient changes, too. So…
First lasing of volume free electron laser (VFEL) is described. The generating system consists of two metal diffraction grating with different spatial periods. The first grating creates the conditions for Smith Purcell emission mechanism. The second grating provides the distributed feedback for emitted wave. The length of diffraction grating is 10 cm. Electron beam pulse with a time duration $τ\sim$ 10 ms has a sinusoidal form with the amplitude varied from 1 to ~10 kV. The measured microwave power reached the value of about 3-4 W in mm wavelength range. The generation stops at threshold curre…
The equations describing the VFEL lasing in case of an electron beam moving either in a split of a diffraction grating or in a vacuum waveguide containing a diffraction grating (vacuum VFEL) have been obtained. The dispersion equation allowing to find the vacuum VFEL gain in one-mode generation regime have been considered. It is shown that the vacuum VFEL amplification and the generation process develop more intensively then in ordinary FEL using one-dimensional distributed feedback. Such the VFEL, if realised, could be made with much more compact device structure compared with the FEL and the…
Recent theoretical and experimental studies have shown that Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission Free Electron Laser (SASE FEL) with a planar undulator holds a potential for generation of relatively strong coherent radiation at the third harmonic of the fundamental frequency. Here we present detailed study of the nonlinear harmonic generation in the SASE FEL obtained with time-dependent FEL simulation code. Using similarity techniques we present universal dependencies for temporal, spectral, and statistical properties of the odd harmonics of the radiation from SASE FEL. In particular, we derive…
The most promising way to increase the output power of an X-ray FEL (XFEL) is by tapering the magnetic field of the undulator. Also, significant increase in power is achievable by starting the FEL process from a monochromatic seed rather than from noise. This report proposes to make use of a cascade self-seeding scheme with wake monochromators in a tunable-gap baseline undulator at the European XFEL to create a source capable of delivering coherent radiation of unprecedented characteristics at hard X-ray wavelengths. Compared with SASE X-ray FEL parameters, the radiation from the new source ha…
FLASH is the first soft X-ray FEL user facility, routinely providing brilliant photon beams for users since 2005. The second undulator branch of this facility, FLASH2, is gap-tunable which allows to test and use advanced lasing concepts. In particular, we developed a two-color operation mode based on the alternatingly tuned undulator segments (every other segment is tuned to the second wavelength). This scheme is advantageous in comparison with a subsequent generation of two colors in two consecutive sections of the undulator line. First, source positions of the two FEL beams are close to each…
Independently from electron beam based procedures, photon beam based diagnostics is an alternative way for alignment and commissioning of the numerous undulator cells in a high-gain short-wavelength free-electron laser (FEL). In this paper, using the seed laser modulated electron beam and the undulator fine tuning technique, a coherent photon beam based diagnostic was proposed for seeded FEL, and some preliminary experimental results at Shanghai deep ultraviolet FEL test facility were presented. It demonstrates that the spatial distribution of the coherent harmonic radiation from one individua…
This paper describes an effective frequency doubler scheme for SASE free electron lasers. It consists of an undulator tuned to the first harmonic, a dispersion section, and a tapered undulator tuned to the second harmonic. The first stage is a conventional soft X-ray SASE FEL. Its gain is controlled in such a way that the maximum energy modulation of the electron beam at the exit is about equal to the local energy spread, but still far away from saturation. When the electron bunch passes through the dispersion section this energy modulation leads to effective compression of the particles. Then…
We propose a scheme for generation of single 100 GW 300-as pulse in the X-ray free electron laser with the use of a few cycles optical pulse from Ti:sapphire laser system. Femtosecond optical pulse interacts with the electron beam in the two-period undulator resonant to 800 nm wavelength and produces energy modulation within a slice of the electron bunch. Following the energy modulator the electron beam enters the first part of the baseline gap-adjustable X-ray undulator and produces SASE radiation with 100 MW-level power. Due to energy modulation the frequency is correlated to the longitudina…
We propose an analytical approach to characterize undulator radiation near resonance, when the presence of the vacuum-pipe considerably affects radiation properties. This is the case of the far-infrared undulator beamline at the Free-electron LASer (FEL) in Hamburg (FLASH), that will be capable of delivering pulses in the TeraHertz (THz) range. This undulator will allow pump-probe experiments where THz pulses are naturally synchronized to the VUV pulse from the FEL, as well as the development of novel electron-beam diagnostics techniques. Since the THz radiation diffraction-size exceeds the va…
The simplest high gain free electron laser (FEL) amplifier concept is proposed. A klystron amplifier has the useful property that the various electronic processes take place in separate portions of the amplifier, rather than overlapping as in FEL amplifier with an uniform undulator. The klystron consists of two fundamental parts: succession of 2-3 cascades (modulator), and an output undulator (radiator) in which the modulated electron beam coherently radiates. Each cascade consists of uniform undulator and dispersion section. Unlike distributed optical klystrons, we have a high gain per cascad…
The dynamical response of a relativistic bunch of electrons injected in a planar magnetic undulator and interacting with a counterpropagating electromagnetic wave is studied. We demonstrate a resonance condition for which the free electron laser (FEL) dynamics is strongly influenced by the presence of the external field. It opens up the possibility of control of short wavelength FEL emission characteristics by changing the parameters of the microwave field without requiring change in the undulator's geometry or configuration. Numerical examples, assuming realistic parameter values analogous to…
One goal of XFEL facilities is the production of narrow bandwidth X-ray radiation. The self-seeding scheme was proposed to obtain a bandwidth narrower than that achievable with conventional X-ray SASE FELs. A self-seeded FEL is composed of two undulators separated by a monochromator and an electron beam bypass that must compensate for the path delay of X-rays in the monochromator. This leads to a long bypass, with a length in the order of 40-60 m, which requires modifications of the baseline undulator configuration. As an attempt to get around this obstacle, together with a study of the self-s…
By utilizing higher harmonics of undulator radiation, harmonic lasing is helpful in the development of compact x-ray free electron lasers (FELs), i.e. reducing its costs and sizes. Harmonic lasing of FELs have been experimentally demonstrated in the low-gain FEL oscillators from terahertz, infrared to ultraviolet spectral range. Based on the current status and future directions of short-wavelength FELs in the worldwide, this paper reviews the progresses on harmonic lasing of x-ray FELs, mainly concentrating on the recently proposed harmonic lasing of x-ray FEL oscillators and further ideas on …
In this paper, a fully coherent radiation option with controllable polarization is proposed for Shanghai deep ultraviolet free electron laser (FEL) test facility. Intensive start-to-end simulation suggests that, the two crossed planar undulators which generate the horizontal and vertical linear polarized FEL respectively, should be placed as close as possible for avoiding the polarization performance degradation of the final combined FEL radiation. With the existence of the phase-shifter between the two crossed radiators, Fourier-Transform-Limited output radiation with 100 nJ order pulse energ…
Pump-probe experiments combining pulses from a X-ray FEL and an optical femtosecond laser are very attractive for sub-picosecond time-resolved studies. Since the synchronization between the two independent light sources to an accuracy of 100 fs is not yet solved, it is proposed to derive both femtosecond radiation pulses from the same electron bunch but from two insertion devices. This eliminates the need for synchronization and developing a tunable high power femtosecond quantum laser. In the proposed scheme a GW-level soft X-ray pulse is naturally synchronized with a GW-level optical pulse, …
Harmonic lasing provides an opportunity to extend the photon energy range of existing and planned X-ray FEL user facilities. Contrary to nonlinear harmonic generation, harmonic lasing can generate a much more intense, stable, and narrow-band FEL beam. Another interesting application is Harmonic Lasing Self-Seeding (HLSS) that allows to improve the longitudinal coherence and spectral power of a Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) FEL. This concept was tested at FLASH in the range of 4.5 - 15 nm and at PAL XFEL at 1 nm. In this paper we present recent results from the European XFEL where …
