VUV FEL driven RF gun

Abstract In this paper we describe the regeneration of electron bunches from the RF gun by back-reflected radiation from VUV SASE FEL at the TESLA Test Facility (TTF) at DESY. The SASE FEL was running at the wavelength 96 nm with 30– 100 fs pulses, SASE pulse energy was up to 20 μJ . “Nominal” electron bunches for lasing were produced by RF gun with Cs 2 Te photocathode driven by UV quantum laser system. “Parasitic” bunches with a charge up to 1– 1.5 nC were extracted from the RF gun due to VUV FEL radiation reflected from the mirror (placed downstream of the undulator) to the cathode. Nontrivial dependence of a charge on a SASE pulse energy was found.