INVERSE FREE ELECTRON LASERS FOR ADVANCED LIGHT SOURCES

Laser accelerators hold the promise for high gradient acceleration and production of ultra short electron bunches. Among these, the inverse free-electron laser has recently demonstrated to be a mature and reliable scheme ready to step up from successful proof-of-principle experiments to cutting-edge applications. The very high gradient and the multi kAmp peak current of the output beam make it an attractive option in the hundreds of MeV to few GeV energy region. We examine the feasibility of using an IFEL driven by an high power Ti:Sa laser source to generate soft x-rays by FEL interaction in an undulator. A control of the slippage of the radiation over the ultrashort spikes of the IFELmicrobunched beam current is implemented to increase the gain and maintain the 200 as-long pulse structure in the radiation profile.