FREE ELECTRON LASER:

Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan

Roll-36/07
8th Semester
Department of Physics
NISER
 INTRODUCTION:
First working laser was a ruby laser made in 1960.

First FEL by John Madey in 1976 at Stanford

Free Electron (unlike others where electrons are exited in states bound to atoms
or molecules).

Widest Tunability(from microwaves to X-rays).

Highest Power Output

50 operating FELs around the world, and 17 more are being built
Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 2
 CONSTRUCTION:

lectron Accelerator

ndulator

esonator cavity

Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 3

Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 4
 WORKING MECHANISM

lectrons oscillate inside the undulator and emit spontaneous emission.

his radiation acts back on the undulating electrons and bunches them.

he bunched electrons emit coherent stimulated radiation and amplify

the co-propagating electromagnetic wave.

Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 5

 SPONTANEOUS UNDULATOR RADIATION

nly those wavelengths that propagate ahead of the electron by an integer number of wavelengths in one
undulator period, as shown in Figure, will constructively interfere after many such periods. These
wavelengths, λn = λu/n (where n = 1, 2, 3...), are defined as being ‘resonant’, with other wavelength
components tending to interfere destructively.

Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 6

SPONTANEOUS UNDULATOR RADIATION CONT…

ere we get if we compare the time taken for an electron

propagating along the undulator axis to time taken by resonant wavefront
takes to travel the distance λu + nλn.

y equating these expressions, the following relation for the resonant

wavelengths is obtained

where

e can generate any frequency by changing the electron energy, magnetic field
strength and period of the undulator magnet
Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 7
 ELECTRON BUNCHING

hen electrons enter the undulator,

their initially random phases ensure
that mostly incoherent radiation is
emitted at the resonant radiation
wavelength (left). Because the
electrons interact collectively with
the radiation they emit, small
coherent fluctuations in the
radiation field grow and
simultaneously begin to bunch the
electrons at the resonant wavelength

Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 8

 RESONATOR CAVITY

he process described so far can be viewed as a kind of spontaneous emission by

electrons propagating in an undulator magnet. By spontaneous we mean that the
emission occurs in absence of a field quasi resonant with the emitted radiation and co-
propagating with the electrons. The possibility of realizing a stimulated process is
quite natural and suggested by conventional Laser Physics. If the photons emitted
along the passage through the undulator are trapped in an optical cavity and than
interact again with a fresh electron beam, these electrons are forced to emit stimulated
synchrotron radiation. We can associate to this process a gain and if the gain is larger
than the cavity losses, we have the onset of the laser action and, in full analogy with
conventional lasers,

Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 9

 USES:

t can produce light over a large frequency range.

ue to high power output they are being used by US Navy to shoot down
drones.

hey are used in Condensed Matter Physics, Photochemistry and

Spectroscopy Research.

ot of research are going on due to XFEL (X-ray FEL)

hey are used in medical fields for surgery of delicate tissues.

Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 10
Thank You All

Swagat Sanket Priyadarsan, NISER 11