FREE ELECTRON LASER POWER SOURCE DEVELOPMENT

CONVENTIONAL LINEAR ACCELERATORS ARE POWERED BY KLYSTRONS AND ARE LIMITED IN ACCELERATION GRADIENTS TO BETWEEN 50 AND 100 MEV/M. FUTURE GENERATIONS OF HIGH ENERGY LINEAR COLLIDERS MAY REQUIRE HIGH POWER COHERENT RADIATION SOURCES WITH WAVELENGTHS OF THREE CENTIMETERS AND LOWER. ONE POSSIBLE GENERATOR OF TUNABLE COHERENT RADIATION IN THESE WAVELENGTHS IS THE FREE ELECTRON LASER (FEL). INTEREST IN THE INTERMEDIATE ENERGY ELECTRON COOLING OF ANTIPROTON SOURCES HAS ENABLED THE NATIONAL ELECTROSTATICS CORPORATION (NEC) TO BEGIN DEVELOPMENT OF A 4 AMPERE, 3 MEV RECIRCULATING ELECTRON BEAM SYSTEM APPROPRIATE FOR DC FEL OPERATION. THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS SYSTEM ARE HIGH BEAM QUALITY, HIGH AVERAGE POWER, AND HIGH EFFICIENCY. THIS SYSTEM, WITH A MODIFICATION TO ALLOW A 50 KEV ENERGY LOSS INTHE RECIRCULATING BEAM, COULD PUMP A WAVEGUIDE CONTINUOUSLY AT 200 KW. BY USING MIRRORS TO FORM AN OPTICAL CAVITY, ENERGY CAN BE STORED. USING Q SWITCHING TECHNIQUES THIS ENERGY CAN BE PULSED OUT OF THE CAVITY QUICKLY, RESULTING INVERY HIGH PEAK POWER. ONE OF THE MOST PROMISING TYPES OF NEW ACCELERATOR IS THE PLASMA BEATWAVE ACCELERATOR. A TWO FREQUENCY FEL MIGHT PROVIDE THE LASER DRIVER FOR SUCH AN ACCELERATOR POTENTIALLY YIELDING ACCELERATING GRADIENTS IN EXCESS OF 1 GEV PER METER. THE CONTRACTOR PROPOSES TO DESIGN AND TEST A MULTISTAGE ELECTRON BEAM COLLECTOR CAPABLE OF COLLECTING A WIDE RANGE OF ELECTRON ENERGIES. SUCCESSFUL OPERATION OF THE DEVICE WILL PROVE THE FEASIBILITY OF A TWO FREQUENCY FEL POWER SOURCE FOR FUTURE ACCELERATION TECHNIQUES.