A Method for Ultrashort Electron Pulse Shape-Measurement Using Coherent Synchrotron Radiation

In this paper we discuss a method for nondestructive measurements of the longitudinal profile of sub-picosecond electron bunches for X-Ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs). The method is based on the detection of the Coherent Synchrotron Radiation (CSR) spectrum produced by a bunch passing a dipole magnet system. This work also contains a systematic treatment of synchrotron radiation theory which lies at the basis of CSR. Standard theory of synchrotron radiation uses several approximations whose applicability limits are often forgotten: here we present a systematic discussion about these assumptions. Properties of coherent synchrotron radiation from an electron moving along an arc of a circle are then derived and discussed. We describe also an effective and practical diagnostic technique based on the utilization of an electromagnetic undulator to record the energy of the coherent radiation pulse into the central cone. This measurement must be repeated many times with different undulator resonant frequencies in order to reconstruct the modulus of the bunch form-factor. The retrieval of the bunch profile function from these data is performed by means of deconvolution techniques: for the present work we take advantage of a constrained deconvolution method. We illustrate with numerical examples the potential of the proposed method for electron beam diagnostics at the TESLA Test Facility (TTF) accelerator. Here we choose, for emphasis, experiments aimed at the measure of the strongly non-Gaussian electron bunch profile in the TTF femtosecond-mode operation. We demonstrate that a tandem combination of a picosecond streak camera and a CSR spectrometer can be used to extract shape information from electron bunches with a narrow leading peak and a long tail.Comment: 60 pages, 39 figure

Fel Oscillators with Tapered Undulators: Inclusion of Harmonic Generation and Pulse Propagation

We review the theory of FEL oscillators operating with tapered undulators. We consider the case of a uniform tapering and introduce a parameter which characterizes the effect of the tapering on the gain and on the saturation intensity. We analyze the effect of the tapering on the FEL dynamics by including the pulse propagation effects too. We analyze the importance of tapering as a tool to model the optical pulse shapes and to control the higher harmonic intensities

On Free-Electron Laser Growing Modes and their Bandwidth

Free-electron lasers play an increasing role in science, from generating unique femtosecond X- ray pulses for single short recording of the protein structures to amplifying feeble interactions in advanced cooling systems for high-energy hadron colliders. While modern Free-electron laser codes can describe their amplification mechanism, a deep analytical understanding of the mechanism is of extreme importance for a number of applications. Mode competition, their growth rates and amplification bandwidth are among the most important parameters of a free-electron laser. A dispersion relation, which defines these important characteristics, can be solved analytically only for a very few simple cases. In this letter we show that for a typical bell-shape energy distribution in electron beam there is no more that one growing mode. We also derive an analytical expression which determines the bandwidth of the free-electron laser.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to PR

Optical Klystron Enhancement to SASE X-ray FELs

The optical klystron enhancement to self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) free electron lasers (FELs) is studied in theory and in simulations. In contrast to a seeded FEL, the optical klystron gain in a SASE FEL is not sensitive to any phase mismatch between the radiation and the microbunched electron beam. The FEL performance with the addition of four optical klystrons located at the undulator long breaks in the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) shows significant improvement if the uncorrelated energy spread at the undulator entrance can be controlled to a very small level. In addition, FEL saturation at shorter x-ray wavelengths (around 1.0 \AA) within the LCLS undulator length becomes possible. We also discuss the application of the optical klystron in a compact x-ray FEL design that employs relatively low electron beam energy together with a short-period undulator.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beam