Effect of beam pre-bunching on gain and efficiency in a surface wave-pumped free electron laser

Abstract

AbstractA pre-bunched relativistic electron beam (REB) counter-propagating to the surface wave in the vacuum region Compton backscatters the surface wave into a high-frequency coherent radiation. Plasma supports the surface wave that acquires a large wave number k0z around pump wave frequency $\omega _0 = {{\omega _p } {/ {\vphantom {{\omega _p } {\sqrt 2 }}} \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\sqrt 2 }}$, where ωp is the plasma frequency. The surface wave extends into the vacuum region and can be employed as a wiggler for the generation of sub-millimeter waves. The growth rate, efficiency, and gain were evaluated based on experimentally known parameters relevant to free electron laser (FEL). It was found that the growth rate, efficiency, and gain of the surface wave-pumped FEL increase with the modulation index Δ, which has the maximum value when approaching unity in addition to when the frequency and wave number of the pre-bunched beam are comparable to that of the radiation wave, i.e., ω01 ~ ω1 and k01 ~ k1. The growth rate of FEL instability scales as one-third power of beam density in the Compton regime.