Analysis on Inverse Free-Electron Laser Accelerator

Abstract

The characteristics of the accelerator using the inverse free-electron laser process are investigated by a 1-D FEL simulation code in order to demonstrate the potential of this type of accelerator. When an infrared laser of 60 GW is focused to a 280μm diameter laser spot, the maximum acceleration rate reaches 100 MeV/m and the accelerated electron beam is strongly bunched. The bunch length is about 1/14 of the laser wavelength. For the simulations using the spectrum with sideband components, an unstable phenomenon is found which is due to the resonance between the synchrotron motion and the beat frequencies of the broad band laser radiation. The energy losses by the higher harmonics and by the synchrotron radiation are also studied.