High gain free electron laser for heating and current drive in the ALCATOR-C tokamak

The free electron laser (FEL) particle simulation code, FRED, has been used to examine the design of an FEL for amplifying radiation in the one to two millimeter wavelength range for use in electron heating and current drive in a tokamak device such as ALCATOR-C. As a desired design goal a peak output power of 8 GW, with a minimum input power in the 1 to 100 watt range has been used. The effects of electron beam current, energy and brightness, laser frequency and input power as well as wiggler wavelength and overall wiggler length on the performance of the FEL have been examined.