Volume 77, number 1 OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS 1 June 1990

OPTICAL KLYSTRON C O N F I G U R A T I O N
FOR A HIGH GAIN X-RAY FREE-ELECTRON LASER

Juan C. GALLARDO and Claudio PELLEGRINI

Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NYl1973, USA

Received 5 December 1989

We present theory and numerical simulations of the performanceof an x-ray free-electronlaser in the amplified spontaneous
emission mode with an optical klystron undulator configuration. This device can produce picosecond pulses of high brightness
with a significantlyshorter undulator than a conventional FEL.

1. Introduction for a moderately long undulator. An optical klystron

The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) re-
gime of a free-electron laser (FEL) can be used to
produce coherent soft x-ray radiation in a long un-
dulator ( 5 ~<L ~< 10 m ) [ 1-6 ]. In such a regime, the
initial incoherent radiation, with an optical power
proportional to the number of electrons, is amplified
by the electron beam itself as it traverses the inter-
action region subject to the combined periodic mag-
netic and radiation fields. This collective phenom-
ena leads to exponential growth until the system
reaches saturation [5,6]. To achieve this situation
the undulator has to be made sufficiently long and
the accelerator has to provide a high brightness elec-
tron beam, well above the values required for a mul-
tipass oscillator experiment. However, the ASE has
a number of advantages in comparison with an os-
cillator; first, good reflectivity soft x-ray mirrors are
not needed; second, an ASE-FEL only needs a single
pulse traversing the undulator reducing the beam
loading problem [7 ] in the electron beam acceler-
ator, and thus makes it easier to produce a high
brightness, nearly monochromatic beam.
In this work we discuss one possible alternative
undulator configuration that will reduce its length
keeping the total power output of the laser approx-
imately constant. An optical klystron [ 8,9 ] has been
used to improve the gain of FELs in weak optical field
and small gain. We show that the same concept is
useful in a short wavelength ASE-FEL thus allowing
consists of two undulators separated by either a long
drift space or a shorter dispersive magnet. This mag-
net configuration translates the energy spread cre-
ated in the first undulator section (modulator) into
significant changes in the electron phase
~,= (k+ ko)z-o~t when the electron pulse arrives at
the second undulator section (radiator). If these
changes are arranged in a suitable manner we can
achieve significant bunching and, consequently, a
larger optical gain.
We first use a simple one-dimensional linearized
theory to obtain an approximate estimate of the FEL
field enhancement produced by the optical klystron
magnet configuration; then, we numerically solve the
complete non-linear set of one-dimensional FEL
equations including both energy spread and emit-
tance. Our results show that an optical klystron is a
very attractive alternative to achieve saturation in
an ASE-FEL with less than half the undulator length
of a conventional FEL and producing the same out-
put power.
2. Theory
A free electron laser in an optical klystron config-
uration uses a beam of relativistic electrons going
through a periodic magnetic field consisting of two
undulators separated by a dispersive section. The
spontaneous emission of the electron beam produces

0030-4018/90/$03.50 © Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland) 45

Volume 77, number l OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS I June 1990

an optical field which, in combination with the un-

X = - ~ Yo/z~"exp (i/ll r) . (3a)
dulator magnetic field, acts back over the electrons
to introduce an energy modulation in the beam. This Y= -~Yo exp (i/~ r ) , ( 3b )
energy modulation is transformed into bunching of
Z = i l Yo/q exp(i/ll r) , (3c)
the electrons as they go through the dispersive sec-
tion. The optimal position of the dispersive magnet where ~ t ~ = ( 1 - i x / 3 ) / 2 and /1~' is the complex
occurs at the point where the laser power starts to conjugate.
grow exponentially which correspond to a gain length The dispersive section can be taken as an instan-
Lcj, defined as the distance for e-folding of the laser taneous interaction at rD with the following con-
power. This forced bunching results in a discontin- straints on the dynamical variables (X< and X> de-
uous jump of the gain as the electrons enter the ra- note the values right before and after the dispersion
diator undulator. interaction, respectively),
To describe this system below saturation, we use
the linearized, 1D FEL theory for a helical undulator X> =X< , (4a)
given in refs. [5,6]. The FEL dynamics are then de- Y> = Y< - ~ Z < , (4b)
scribed by defining three collective variables [ 5 ] for
the laser field X, the bunching function Y, and the Z> = Z < , (4c)
energy spread Z,
where ~ = p k D with
X=a,
Y= (exp( -i~uo)0),
(la)

(lb) D-{ e ~aidz,(idz,,Bt)(z,, ,

)2.
- \?mc2) o o
Z = p - ' (exp( - i~uo)rl> , (lc)
A simple example of a dispersive section is given by
where ~'0 is the initial electron phase, O=~'-~'ot, 70
a three-section magnet of total length s and field
is the initial electron energy and ~/= (7-70)/7o.

P= (K~o/87r~C)2/3(4~reC2 ~e/~)1/3 BD(z)=Bo , 0~<z< Is,

=-Bo, ~s<z<~s,
is the FEL parameter with 20 the wiggler period, K
the undulator parameter; re is the classical electron =9o, 3s<z<~s. (5)
radius and ~ is the particle density of the electron
beam. In the limit of small p the FEL equations of This configuration gives D=~(eBo/mc;7)2s 3 and
motion [6] with initial conditions X ( 0 ) = Z ( 0 ) = 0 satisfies the condition that the first and second in-
and Y(0) = Yo are tegral over z of the magnetic field must vanish so as
to have no transverse and angular beam displace-
J(= i d X - i Y , (2a) ments. The cj parameter turns to be ~2500 for a 1
)>=Z, (2b) GeV electron beam, p = 1.2× 10-3,2=2.5 nm, Bo= 1
T and s = 1 rn. After the dispersion section, the dy-
2= - x . (2c) namical variables will evolve as in the first section
but now with the initial conditions
where d is the detuning parameter d=(r 2-
7?)/2yRp and 72 = (20/22) ( 1 + K 2) and J(=dX/dr X> (~'D) = X < (I"D) , (6a)
with r=4gpN, N being the number of undulator
periods. Y> (TD) = Y< (TD) -- ~ Z < (rD)
Nontrivial solutions of the form exp(i/tr) exist if = Y< (rD)(1--i/~, c/), (6b)
~t satisfy the characteristic equation/t 2(/~- 6) + 1 = 0.
In the high-gain self-spontaneous emission, the max- Z> (rD) = Z < (~'D) , (6c)
imum gain rate is obtained with 6=0; keeping the therefore we can immediately write the laser field as
fastest growing root we write

46
Volume 77, number 1 OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS 1 June 1990

x>(o= - '3#,* Y< (ZD) (1 -i/xi ~ )
× e x p [i/t1 ( 3 - r D ) ] •
This last expression shows that the enhancement fac-
tor introduced by an optical klystron is given by the
factor ~ ~~ which, for the parameters considered in
our example is of the order of 103. To obtain an
equivalent growth in the field in the conventional
FEL configuration, the length of the undulator can
be estimated from exp(i/qAr).~ 10 3 which, for the
value of p used, corresponds to ~ 400 magnet pe-
riods. This simplified model is only valid in the lin-
ear regime and for a perfect electron beam; it is not
intended to describe saturation.
To understand this increase in the output power
106 we have used a ID simulation code to solve
the full set of FEL equations including energy spread
and emittance. To simulate a realistic electron beam
with energy spread and emittance, we use a uniform
distribution in ~'o and a product of a gaussian dis-
tribution in energy spread, transverse position and
injection angle. In table l we list the parameters of
the electron beam and undulator; we notice that to
achieve this rather large value o f p we must resort to
external quadrupole focusing [2 ] along the undu-
lator with a typical effective fl-function fl* ~ 1. This
additional focusing is essential to reach the electron
beam brightness required for an x-ray F E L [ 10 ]. Ad-
ditional comments are pertinent here regarding the
brilliance of the electron beam presented in table 1.
There are a number of experimental groups studying
laser-driven photocathode electron guns. Los Ala-
mos [ 11 ] has produced an electron beam of nor-
malized emittance of 40n m m mrad and simulations
studies at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)
[ 12] have suggested an emittance of 6n m m mrad.
Table 1
Electron and undulator parameters used in the simulations
Therefore, further improvements are needed to sat-
isfy the emittance requirements. On the other hand,
(7)
the peak current I = 4 0 0 A for a 1 ps electron pulse
and energy spread aE~ 10 -3 corresponds to a lon-
gitudinal brilliance B L = l/trEy= 200 A which is rather
modest compared with the experimental results at
Los Alamos and the expected values at BNL. As il-
lustrated in fig. l, the saturation power achieved by
an optical klystron is larger than the one obtained
with a standard wiggler and, more important, we ob-
serve significant power levels at less than half the un-
dulator length. As expected, introducing the beam
energy spread and emittance reduces the output
power level of the laser; however, in the high gain
regime, larger gain than in the case of the standard
undulator case is observed even for energy spread
Ay/y as large as p. Although our results were ob-
tained in the context of a ID theory, for the set of
parameters used, the gain length of the device is
shorter than the Rayleigh range of the laser and, con-
sequently, 3D effects will not significantly modify our
conclusions [ 13 ].
In summary, we have shown that the optical klys-
tron configuration of an FEL can be used to advan-
tage in the high gain collective regime, making a soft
x-ray FEL in the ASE mode more feasible by reduc-
I I I l I l
10 8
10 6 /f /
.,6
10 4
,\ / .S.ogoO,,TO,
10 2
I00
p°- /...--1
/#/
.
i l/l/ 0 //
,o-Z J,,"/ 0 0 0 -

i~//~//0"° 0 0 0
wavelength (nm) 2.5
, 0- 4
energy (GeV) 1.02
p × 103 1.2 0I/ 0 " 0 0l I I 1 t
L(m) 8.1 io-6
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0,8 1.0 1.2 1.4
undulator period (cm) 1.0 z / LENGTH - UNDULATOR
gain length L G (m) 0.75
peak current (A) 400
normalized emittance (ram mrad ) 1.0 Fig. 1. Laser power versus z/L from the simulations for both
external focusing if' (m) 1.0 standard undulator and optical klystron, at=0.0 (solid);
aE=0.1% (dash) and aE=0.2% (circle).

47
Volume 77, number 1 OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS
ing in half the undulator length and maintaining the
laser output power.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank J. Goldstein for advice on the
numerical algorithm. This work was supported by
the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract num-
ber DE-AC02-76-CH0016.
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