Status of the Novosibirsk high power free electron laser

Abstract

A 100-MeV 8-turns accelerator-recuperator (AR) intended to drive a high-power infrared free electron laser (FEL) is under construction in Novosibirsk now. The FEL will provide up to 100 kW average power radiation in the wavelength range 2 -50 µm. As building up the full-scale machine takes a long time and much resources, it is reasonably to divide the project into two stages.The first-stage machine includes the AR with the fullscale RF-system and only one turn of electron beam, so the maximum energy of electrons is 14 MeV. A submillimeter-wave FEL will be installed on the single backward track of the AR. The expected FEL parameters are: wavelength of emitted radiation 100...200 µm; pulse duration 20...100 ps; peak power 1...7 MW; average power 0.6...7 kW. Thus, one gets an operating FEL after commissioning the first stage of the project. Some aspects of these two projects and possible applications are discussed.

Gas discharge powered by the focused beam of the high-intensive electromagnetic waves of the terahertz frequency band

“…For the first time, gas breakdown (atmospheric pressure air) in the THz frequency range was carried out by radiation from a submillimeter laser [3]. In this paper, it was demonstrated that for λ = 385 and 359 µm, the breakdown power density is of the order of 1 MW cm −2 , which agrees well with the results in the infrared range (CO 2 [4], Nd [5], and ruby [6] lasers) from the point of view that the breakdown intensity increases as ω 2 . This scaling was also confirmed in a recent experiment in the Budker Institute for Nuclear Research, on a free-electron laser (FEL) [7,8].…”

“…The terahertz (THz) frequency range is the least studied frequency range from the point of view of gas discharge physics. Certain progress in the study of the discharge, sustained by the powerful radiation of the THz frequency range, was achieved due to the creation of powerful radiation sources in this band [1,2].…”

Novosibirsk terahertz free electron laser: status and survey of experimental results

“…Radiation characteristics of the Novosibirsk free electron laser (NFEL) [1] are gradually growing during the last year. The average output power reaches the value of 400 W (at 11.2 MHz) that corresponds to the peak power of about 1 Laser parameters For transmission of laser radiation from the accelerator hall to user stations, a 14-m optical beamline guiding terahertz radiation from the laser had been constructed.…”

“…The average output power reaches the value of 400 W (at 11.2 MHz) that corresponds to the peak power of about 1 Laser parameters For transmission of laser radiation from the accelerator hall to user stations, a 14-m optical beamline guiding terahertz radiation from the laser had been constructed. The beamline is separated from the accelerator vacuum with a 0.8-mm thick diamond window.…”