Speaker
Description
Several demonstration experiments of laser plasma accelerator (LPA) driven free electron lasers (FEL) have emerged in the past 5 years [1,2] and are paving the path towards compact light sources. The electron beams generated in plasma accelerators differ significantly from those produced in RF-based photoinjectors and linear accelerators, which drive all existing XFELs. LPAs exhibit larger energy spreads, stronger shot-to-shot fluctuations, and correlated phase space structure. Here we discuss recent efforts to model the FEL process recently demonstrated by the BELLA Center [2] using two freely available codes, Genesis 1.3 [3] and MINERVA [4]. These codes are both based on the slowly-varying envelope approximation but employ different numerical approaches to modeling the FEL interaction, with differing assumptions regarding beam dynamics and radiation field evolution. By comparing their predictions for LPA-driven beams, we aim to assess their applicability and identify key considerations for accurately modeling FEL performance in this emerging regime.
[1] W. Wang et al., Nature 595, 516 (2021).
[2] S.K. Barber et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 055001 (2025).
[3] S. Reiche, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A429, 243 (1999).
[4] H.P. Freund et al., New J. Phys. 19, 023020 (2017).
Funding Agency
Work was supported by the United States Department of Energy under contract DE-SC0024397 and DE-AC02-05CH11231
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