Author: Esarey, E.
Paper Title Page
MOPSO69 Free-Electron Lasers Driven by Laser-Plasma Accelerators Using Decompression or Dispersion 117
 
  • C.B. Schroeder, E. Esarey, W. Leemans, J. van Tilborg
    LBNL, Berkeley, California, USA
  • Y. Ding, Z. Huang
    SLAC, Menlo Park, California, USA
  • F.J. Grüner, A.R. Maier
    CFEL, Hamburg, Germany
 
  Funding: Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.
Laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) compactly produce fs beams with kA peak current and low (sub-micron) transverse emittance. Presently, the energy spread (percent-level) hinders the FEL application. Slippage of the fs beam in the FEL also suppresses lasing in the soft-x-ray, and longer, wavelength regimes. Given experimentally demonstrated LPA electron beam parameters, we discuss methods of beam phase space manipulation after the LPA to achieve FEL lasing. Decompression is examined as a solution to reduce the slice energy spread and slippage effects. We present a theoretical analysis of the stretched (and chirped) LPA beam in the FEL and determine the optimal decompression. Dispersion, coupled to a transverse gradient undulator (TGU), is also considered to enable LPA-driven FELs. Using a TGU has the advantages of shorter pulse duration, smaller bandwidth, and wavelength stabilization. We present numerical modeling for SASE and seeded XUV and soft x-ray FELs driven by LPAs after beam manipulation (decompression and/or dispersion). Recent advances in LPA performance will be presented, and experimental plans to demonstrate LPA-driven FEL lasing at LBNL will be discussed.