| Paper | Title | Page |
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MOP073 |
Chirped Pulse Amplification in a Seeded Free-electron Laser: Design of a Test Experiment at FERMI | |
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| In solid-state lasers, frequency chirping is employed to stretch a short pulse prior to amplification, mitigating the problems related to high power in the active medium. After amplification, the chirp is compensated in order to recover short pulse duration and, hence, high peak power. Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) in seeded FEL’s relies on a similar principle: the seed pulse is stretched in time before interacting with the electron beam. This permits one to create bunching on a larger number of electrons, and to (approximately) linearly increase the output energy of the generated FEL pulse. In ideal conditions, the chirp carried by the phase of the seed pulse is transmitted to the output phase of the FEL pulse. Chirp compensation after the last undulator allows production of a short (ideally Fourier-transformed) pulse and, therefore, a larger peak power with respect to what obtained, for the same conditions, in standard (i.e., no-chirp-on-the-seed) operation mode. In this paper, we present the preparatory studies (i.e., numerical simulations and compressor design), which have been carried out at FERMI, in view of performing the first test experiment of CPA on a seeded FEL. | ||
| TUP085 | FERMI Status Report | 564 |
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| FERMI, the seeded FEL located at the Elettra laboratory in Trieste, Italy, is now in regular operation for users with its first FEL line, FEL-1, which covers the wavelength range between 100 and 20 nm. We will give an overview of the typical operating modes of the facility for users and we will report on the status of beamlines and experimental stations. Three beamlines are now opened for users, three more are in construction. Meanwhile, the second FEL line of FERMI, FEL-2, a HGHG double stage cascade covering the wavelength range 20 to 4 nm is still under commissioning; we will report on the latest results in particular at the shortest wavelength, 4 nm in the fundamental. | ||
| TUC03 | Generation of Optical Orbital Angular Momentum Using a Seeded Free Electron Laser | 609 |
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Funding: The research was in part funded by the TALENTS UP Programme (7th R&D Framework Programme, Specific Programme: PEOPLE - Marie Curie Actions - COFUND). We propose an effective scheme for the generation of intense extreme-ultraviolet light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM). The light is produced by a high-gain harmonic-generation free-electron laser (HGHG FEL), seeded using a laser pulse with a transverse staircase-like phase pattern. The transverse phase modulation in the seed laser is obtained by putting a phase-mask in front of the focusing lens, before the modulator. The staircase-like phase pattern is effectively transferred onto the electron beam in the modulator and the microbunching structure is preserved after frequency up-conversion in the radiator. During light amplification in the radiator, diffraction and mode selection drive the radiation profile towards a dominant OAM mode at saturation. With a seed laser at 260 nm, gigawatt power levels are obtained at wavelengths approaching those of soft x-rays. Compared to other proposed schemes to generate OAM with FELs, our approach is robust, easier to implement, and can be integrated into already existing FEL facilities without extensive modifications of the machine layout. |
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