Simulations of the Proposed TJNAF 100KW Free Electron Laser and Comparison with TJNAF Low Power Experiments

Abstract

One transitional step for the development of a 1 MW power directed energy weapon is the proposed 100 kW upgrade of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility's Free Electron Laser (FEL). To improve the performance of the FEL, the use of the step-taper undulator is explored. Steady-state gain, final steady-state power, and the induced electron spread as a function of desynchronism and taper rates are determined. Comparisons are made to the conventional periodic and linearly tapered undulators. The multimode simulations used showed that the TJNAP 100 kW FEL is feasible. Simulations results with Q = 10 show that the inverse step-taper undulator delta = - pi achieved the highest final power of 190 kW at a desynchronism value of d = 0.01, while maintaining the induced energy spread well below the engineering limit. The validity of our results is verified against experiments conducted in the TJNAF FEL facility. The simulations and the experimental data are in good agreement and consistent with analytic theory.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA401879

Entities

People

  • Konstantinos Polykandriotis

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Chemical Oxygen Iodine Lasers
  • Diffraction
  • Directed Energy Weapons
  • Electromagnetic Scattering
  • Electromagnetic Shielding
  • Electrons
  • Energy Transfer
  • Engineering
  • Free Electron Lasers
  • Klystrons
  • Laser Beams
  • Lasers
  • Linear Accelerators
  • Optics
  • Optomechanics
  • Tactical High-Energy Lasers

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics