Optimization of a high efficiency free electron laser amplifier

Abstract

The free electron laser (FEL) amplifier is implemented in x-ray FEL facilities to generate short wavelength radiation. The problem of an efficiency increase of an FEL amplifier is now of great practical importance. The technique of undulator tapering in the postsaturation regime is used at the existing x-ray FELs LCLS, SACLA and FERMI, and is planned for use at FLASH, European XFEL, Swiss FEL, and PAL XFEL. There are also discussions on the future of high peak and average power FELs for scientific and industrial applications. In this paper we perform a detailed analysis of the tapering strategies for high power seeded FEL amplifiers. Analysis of the radiation properties from the modulated electron beam and application of similarity techniques allows us to derive the universal law of the undulator tapering.