The Jefferson Lab High Power Light Source
Jefferson Lab has designed, built and operated two high average power free-electron lasers (FEL) using superconducting RF (SRF) technology and energy recovery techniques. Between 1999-2001 Jefferson Lab operated the IR Demo FEL. This device produced over 2 kW in the mid-infrared, in addition to producing world record average powers in the visible (50 W), ultraviolet (10 W) and terahertz range (50 W) for tunable, short-pulse (< ps) light. This FEL was the first high power demonstration of an accelerator configuration that is being exploited for a number of new accelerator-driven light source facilities that are currently under design or construction. The driver accelerator for the IR Demo FEL uses an Energy Recovered Linac (ERL) configuration that improves the energy efficiency and lowers both the capital and operating cost of such devices by recovering most of the power in the spent electron beam after optical power is extracted from the beam. The IR Demo FEL was de-commissioned in late 2001 for an upgraded FEL for extending the IR power to over 10 kW and the ultraviolet power to over 1 kW. The FEL Upgrade achieved 10 kW of average power in the mid-IR (6 microns) in July of 2004, and its IR operation currently is being extended down to 1 micron. In addition, we have demonstrated the capability of on/off cycling and recovering over a megawatt of electron beam power without diminishing machine performance. A complementary UV FEL will come on-line within the next year. This paper presents a summary of the FEL characteristics, user community accomplishments with the IR Demo, and planned user experiments.
- Research Organization:
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), Newport News, VA
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE - Office of Energy Research (ER)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84ER40150
- OSTI ID:
- 876085
- Report Number(s):
- JLAB-ACT-05-02; DOE/ER/40150-3737
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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