Analysis of the beam bunching produced by a free electron laser

J. Gardelle (1) , J. Labrouche (1) , G. Marchese (1) , J. L. Rullier (1) , D. Villate (1) , J.T. Donohue (2)

1 CESTA - Centre d'études scientifiques et techniques d'Aquitaine
2 CENBG - Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan

A high-power microwave Free Electron Laser (FEL) experiment has been performed to study the inherent electron beam bunching that occurs in the FEL interaction. An induction linac delivered a 1 kA, 2.2 MeV electron beam to a FEL amplifier. In the process of amplifying the input signal of frequency 35 GHz to power levels of the order of 10 MW, the electron beam was bunched by the ponderomotive force. In this paper we describe the FEL experiment and the optical technique that was used to observe the bunches. Their properties as functions of the basic FEL parameters are discussed.

Domaines: Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

J. Gardelle, J. Labrouche, G. Marchese, J. L. Rullier, D. Villate, et al.. Analysis of the beam bunching produced by a free electron laser. Physics of Plasmas, 1996, 3, pp.4197-4206. ⟨10.1063/1.871552⟩. ⟨in2p3-00102975⟩