A High-Average-Power Free Electron Laser for Microfabrication and Surface Applications

CEBAF has developed a comprehensive conceptual design of an industrial user facility based on a kilowatt ultraviolet (UV) (160-1000 mm) and infrared (IR) (2-25 micron) free electron laser (FEL) driven by a recirculating, energy recovering 200 MeV superconducting radio frequency (SRF) accelerator. FEL users, CEBAF's partners in the Lase Processing Consortium, including AT&T, DuPont, IBM, Northrop Grumman, 3M, and Xerox, are developing applications such as metal, ceramic, and electronic material micro-fabrication and polymer and metal surface processing, with the overall effort leading to later scale-up to industrial systems at 50-100 kW. Representative applications are described. The proposed high-average-power FEL overcomes limitations of conventional laser sources in available power, cost-effectiveness, tunability, and pulse structure

First lasing of the Jefferson Lab IR Demo FEL

As reported previously [1], Jefferson Lab is building a free-electron laser capable of generating a continuous wave kilowatt laser beam. The driver-accelerator consists of a superconducting, energy-recovery accelerator. The initial stage of the program was to produce over 100 W of average power with no recirculation. In order to provide maximum gain the initial wavelength was chosen to be 5 mu-m and the initial beam energy was chosen to be 38.5 MeV. On June 17, 1998, the laser produced 155 Watts cw power at the laser output with a 98% reflective output coupler. On July 28th, 311 Watts cw power was obtained using a 90% reflective output coupler. A summary of the commissioning activities to date as well as some novel lasing results will be summarized in this paper. Present work is concentrated on optimizing lasing at 5 mu-m, obtaining lasing at 3 mu-m, and commissioning the recirculation transport in preparation for kilowatt lasing this fall

A Proposed High-Power UV Industrial Demonstration Laser at CEBAF

The Laser Processing Consortium, a collaboration of industries, universities, and the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) in Newport News, Virginia, has proposed building a demonstration industrial processing laser for surface treatment and micro-machining. The laser is a free-electron laser (FEL) with average power output exceeding 1 kW in the ultraviolet (UV). The design calls for a novel driver accelerator that recovers most of the energy of the exhaust electron beam to produce laser light with good wall-plug efficiency. The laser and accelerator design use technologies that are scalable to much higher power. The authors will describe the critical design issues in the laser such as the stability, power handling, and losses of the optical resonator, and the quality, power, and reliability of the electron beam. They will also describe the calculated laser performance. Finally progress to date on accelerator development and resonator modeling will be reported

Rf system modeling for the high average power FEL at CEBAF

High beam loading and energy recovery compounded by use of superconducting cavities, which requires tight control of microphonic noise, place stringent constraints on the linac rf system design of the proposed high average power FEL at CEBAF. Longitudinal dynamics imposes off-crest operation, which in turn implies a large tuning angle to minimize power requirements. Amplitude and phase stability requirements are consistent with demonstrated performance at CEBAF. A numerical model of the CEBAF rf control system is presented and the response of the system is examined under large parameter variations, microphonic noise, and beam current fluctuations. Studies of the transient behavior lead to a plausible startup and recovery scenario

Construction of the CEBAF RF Separator

The CEBAF accelerator is designed in a multipass racetrack configuration, with two 1497 MHz linear accelerator sections joined by independent magnetic transport arcs. Room temperature subharmonic rf separator cavities will be used on each independent arc to extract a portion of the recirculating beam, and one additional cavity will be used to divide the final full-energy beam between CEBAF's three experimental end stations. A single-cell prototype cavity has already been built and tested a low power levels. The next stage of the design process is the construction of a cavity capable of operation at full power, i.e. at a gradient sufficient to provide the required mu-rad bend to a 6 GeV beam. The paper will discuss both the electrical and mechanical design of the cavity, construction techniques employed, and preliminary test results

CEBAF RF separator system

The 4 GeV CEBAF accelerator at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) is arranged in a five-pass racetrack configuration, with two superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) linacs joined by independent magnetic transport arcs. The 1497 MHz continuous electron beam is composed of 3 interlaced variable-intensity 499 MHz beams that can be independently directed from any of the five passes to any of the three experimental halls. Beam extraction is made possible by a system of nine warm sub-harmonic separator cavities capable of delivering a 100 microrad kick to any pass at a maximum machine energy of 6 GeV. Each separator cavity is a half-wavelength, two cell design with a high transverse shunt impedance and a small transverse dimension. The cavities are powered by 1kW solid state amplifiers operating at 499 MHz. Cavity phase and gradient control are provided through a modified version of the same control module used for the CEBAF SRF cavity controls. The system has recently been tested while delivering beam to Hall C. In this paper the authors present a description of the RF separator system and recent test results with beam

A status report on the development of a high power UV and IR FEL at CEBAF

Previously we presented a design for a kiloWatt demonstration industrial UV FEL. Progress has been made in resolving several design issues identified in that work. More exact simulations of the injector have resulted in a better estimate of the injector performance. A more compact lattice has been designed meeting the design requirements for the UV FEL, and a new design point has been studied which greatly increases the threshold for longitudinal instabilities. A stability analysis of the RF control system has found that only minor modifications from existing CEBAF controls will be necessary to allow them to be used with a high-current, energy-recovery accelerator. Designs for the optical cavity length and figure systems have been conceptualized and a model of the corner-cube resonator is being built and tested. Finally, three-dimensional simulations of the FEL have been carried out which show that the laser should exceed its minimum design goals for average power.This work was supported by the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology and DOE Contract #DE-AC05-84ER40150