Critical review of high gain x-ray FEL experiments
There is a renewed interest at the present time to develop x-ray free electron lasers (FELs). The interest is driven by the scientific opportunities with coherent x-rays glimpsed at the third generation light sources. With the recent development in linac technology in producing high-energy, high-brightness electron beams, it is now possible to design intense coherent x-ray source for wavelengths as short as one Angstrom based on the self- amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) principle. Major linac laboratories such as SLAC and DESY are therefore actively pursuing detailed design studies for the x-ray SASE facilities. The x-rays from these facilities will provide a peak brightness more than ten orders of magnitude higher than that of the current synchrotron radiation sources. Short wavelength coherent radiation could also be generated with harmonic generation techniques in linacs or storage rings. However, these schemes are not expected to be effective for 1 {Angstrom} wavelengths. This review will therefore concentrate on the linac based SASE scheme. The critical components of the SASE are: an electron source consisting of an RF photocathode gun with the emittance corrector producing high brightness electron beam; the beam bunching and acceleration; and a long undulator in which the radiation develops from initially incoherent radiation to intense, coherent radiation. We discuss the critical experimental issues in these components highlighting some relevant recent experiments. We also discuss issues related to the SASE experiment which are distinct from the usual free electron lasers. We give a brief survey of the world-wide SASE experiments. We conclude with a summary and outlook.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 415205
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-39326; CBP-Note-197; CONF-9608133-9; ON: DE97001261
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 18. international free electron laser conference and 3. FEL Users` workshop, Rome (Italy), 25-30 Aug 1996; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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