Speaker
Description
Compact free electron laser (FEL) technology enabled by plasma-based accelerators is a rapidly maturing technology with several milestone demonstrations in the last several years. Still, critical work is needed to bridge the gap from proof of concept experiments to reliable operation of laser plasma accelerator (LPA) driven FELs. At the BELLA Center, we have a dedicated facility equipped with a 100 TW laser coupled to an electron beam transport section that culminates in a 4m long, strong focusing undulator. Recent efforts have enabled the production of reliable high quality e-beams which has in turn enabled exponential SASE gain of order 10^3 at 400 nm with gain lengths <20 cm.
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and the Office of High Energy Physics, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, and through a CRADA with Tau Systems
