Preliminary concepts -- Synchrotron radiation -- Basic FEL physics -- 1D FEL analysis -- 3D FEL analysis -- Harmonic generation in high-gain FELs -- FEL oscillators and coherent hard X-rays -- Practical considerations and experimental results for high-gain FELs

This book describes the basic properties of charged beam transport and the theory of accelerators with radiative damping. The characteristics of the third generation synchrotron radiation sources are analyzed and compared to those of the first and second generations. This is followed by the conceptual and technological problems associated with the discovery of the fourth generation sources. Within this framework, the role played by free electron laser devices is discussed and relevant theoretical and technological aspects of storage-ring and Linac-based sources are analyzed.

The main goal of the book is to provide a systematic and didactic approach to the physics and technology of free-electron lasers. Numerous figures are used for illustrating the underlying ideas and concepts and links to other fields of physics are provided. After an introduction to undulator radiation and the low-gain FEL, the one-dimensional theory of the high-gain FEL is developed in a systematic way. Particular emphasis is put on explaining and justifying the various assumptions and approximations that are needed to obtain the differential and integral equations governing the FEL dynamics. Analytical and numerical solutions are presented and important FEL parameters are defined, such as gain length, FEL bandwidth and saturation power. One of the most important features of a high-gain FEL, the formation of microbunches, is studied at length. The increase of gain length due to beam energy spread, space charge forces, and three-dimensional effects such as betatron oscillations and optical diffraction is analyzed. The mechanism of Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission is described theoretically and illustrated with numerous experimental results. Various methods of FEL seeding by coherent external radiation are introduced, together with experimental results. The world’s first soft X-ray FEL, the user facility FLASH at DESY, is described in some detail to give an impression of the complexity of such an accelerator-based light source. The last chapter is devoted to the new hard X-ray FELs which generate extremely intense radiation in the Angstrøm regime. The appendices contain supplementary material and more involved calculations.

Hardly any other discovery of the nineteenth century did have such an impact on science and technology as Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s seminal find of the X-rays. X-ray tubes soon made their way as excellent instruments for numerous applications in medicine, biology, materials science and testing, chemistry and public security. Developing new radiation sources with higher brilliance and much extended spectral range resulted in stunning developments like the electron synchrotron and electron storage ring and the freeelectron laser. This handbook highlights these developments in fifty chapters. The reader is given not only an inside view of exciting science areas but also of design concepts for the most advanced light sources. The theory of synchrotron radiation and of the freeelectron laser, design examples and the technology basis are presented. The handbook presents advanced concepts like seeding and harmonic generation, the booming field of Terahertz radiation sources and upcoming brilliant light sources driven by laser-plasma accelerators. The applications of the most advanced light sources and the advent of nanobeams and fully coherent x-rays allow experiments from which scientists in the past could not even dream. Examples are the diffraction with nanometer resolution, imaging with a full 3D reconstruction of the object from a diffraction pattern, measuring the disorder in liquids with high spatial and temporal resolution. The 20th century was dedicated to the development and improvement of synchrotron light sources with an ever ongoing increase of brilliance. With ultrahigh brilliance sources, the 21st century will be the century of x-ray lasers and their applications. Thus, we are already close to the dream of condensed matter and biophysics: imaging single (macro)molecules and measuring their dynamics on the femtosecond timescale to produce movies with atomic resolution.

This book describes the basic properties of charged beam transport and the theory of accelerators with radiative damping. The characteristics of the third generation synchrotron radiation sources are analyzed and compared to those of the first and second generations. This is followed by the conceptual and technological problems associated with the discovery of the fourth generation sources. Within this framework, the role played by free electron laser devices is discussed and relevant theoretical and technological aspects of storage-ring and Linac-based sources are analyzed. Contents:An Introduction to the Theory of Charged Particle TransportGeneralities on Synchrotron RadiationGeneralities on Free Electron LasersOptical Systems in the Geometrical and Wave Optics FrameworkWigner Distribution and Synchrotron Radiation SourcesSynchrotron Radiation Sources, Insertion Devices and Beam Current LimitationsConstructing and Measuring Insertion DevicesFree Electron Lasers as Insertion DevicesSynchrotron Radiation Beam Lines: X-Ray Optics Readership: Students and researchers in laser physics. Keywords:Insertion Device;Storage Rings;Undulator;Wiggler;Bending Magnet;Synchrotron Radiation;Coherent Light;Emittance;Phase Space;X-Ray Optics

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "X-Ray Free-Electron Laser" that was published in Applied Sciences