Abstract
Free electron laser (FEL) machines generate highpower, coherent, and tunable radiation in the X-ray range. They are used to study molecular structural and dynamic processes at the Ångstrom-femtosecond spatiotemporal scale. The Swiss Free Electron Laser (SwissFEL) facility–under development at the Paul Scherrer Institut and scheduled to begin operation in 2017– will generate intense and short pulses of X-ray light, enabling researchers to observe extremely fast processes, such as the creation of new molecules in chemical reactions or to study the detailed structure of proteins. This article introduces FEL technology from a control systems perspective and provides insight into the types of control problems that arise in pulsedmode accelerators and beams. Although developed here for the SwissFEL machine, the control approaches are expected to be transferable to other systems as well. See Summary for an overview of the article.
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