An elliptically-polarizing undulator with phase adjustable energy and polarization

Abstract

We present a planar helical undulator designed to produce elliptically-polarized light. Helical magnetic fields may be produced by a variety of undulators with four parallel cassettes of magnets. In our design, all cassettes are mounted in two planes on slides so that they may be moved parallel to the electron beam. This allows us to produce X-rays of left- or right-handed elliptical or circular polarization as well as horizontal or vertical linear polarization. In model calculations, we have found that by sliding the top pair of rows with respect to the bottom pair, or the left pair with respect to the right pair, we retain the polarization setting but change the magnetic field strength, and hence the X-ray energy. This allows us to select both energy and polarization by independent phase adjustments alone, without changing the gap between the rows. Such a design may be simpler to construct than an adjustable-gap machine. We present calculations that model its operation and its effects on an electron beam.