Scale-Model Experiments for the Surface Wave Influence on a Submerged Floating Ocean-Current Turbine

In order to harness the kinetic energy of marine currents, we propose a novel ocean-current turbine with a horizontal axis. The turbine can be moored to the seabed and function similarly to kites in a water flow. To operate such turbines in a marine current, the resulting rotor torque needs to be canceled. Therefore, the proposed turbine is designed with a float at its top and a counterweight at its bottom. Thus far, we have verified the turbine stability and blade performance through towing experiments. As the next step, we constructed a scale-model turbine to confirm the mooring system. This experiment was performed at a circulating water channel with wave-making facilities. The influence of waves on the floating body was also investigated. In this paper, we report the behavior of the scale-model turbine moored to the tank bottom and discuss the influence of surface waves

Optimization of asymmetric figure-8 undulator as circularly polarized light source

In the soft x-ray region, the demand for helicity switching of circularly polarized undulator radiation is increasing to study circular dichroism. The asymmetric figure-8 undulator is an insertion device to provide circularly polarized radiation (CPR) and a simple method of helicity switching which has been proposed and built at SPring-8. Because of its complicated magnetic structure, it is important to optimize the magnetic parameters for more effective utilization of CPR. Using an analytical method, the relation between the magnetic parameters to maximize the degree of circular polarization is obtained. The impact of the finite emittance of electron beams on the polarization performance is also investigated numerically

Stable operation of a self-amplified spontaneous-emission free-electron laser in the extremely ultraviolet region

We achieved stable operation of a free-electron laser (FEL) based on the self-amplified spontaneous-emission (SASE) scheme at the SPring-8 Compact SASE Source (SCSS) test accelerator in the extremely ultraviolet region. Saturation of the SASE FEL power has been achieved at wavelengths ranging from 50 to 60 nm. The pulse energy has reached ∼30  μJ at 60 nm. The observed fluctuation of the pulse energy is about 10% (standard deviation) for several hours, which agrees with the expectation from the SASE theory showing the stable operation of the accelerator. The SASE FEL has been routinely operated to provide photon beams for user experiments over a period of a few weeks. Analysis on the experimental data gave the normalized-slice emittance at the lasing part is around 0.7π   mm mrad. This result indicates that the normalized-slice emittance of the initial electron beam, 0.6π   mm mrad in a 90% core part, is kept almost unchanged after the bunch compression process with a compression factor of approximately 300. The success of the SCSS test accelerator strongly encourages the realization of a compact XFEL source