Introduction to the Physics of Free Electron Laser and Comparison with Conventional Laser Sources
Accelerator Physics
2010-10-27 v1
Abstract
This report is a primer introduction on the sources of coherent syncrotron radiation from FELs compared to conventional lasers. Even though the underlying mechanisms are different, FELs can be considered a laser source to all effects. In fact FEL is based on the stimulated emission of virtual photons by a relativistic electron beam, passing through an undulator/wiggler, much like conventional lasers exploit the stimulated emission by an atomic/molecular system on which a population inversion has been realized. FEL operation is illustrated by means of the usual set of parameters (gain, saturation intensity...) used to describe the functioning of conventional lasers.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1010.1647,
title = {Introduction to the Physics of Free Electron Laser and Comparison with Conventional Laser Sources},
author = {G. Dattoli and M. Del Franco and M. Labat and P. L. Ottaviani and S. Pagnutti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1010.1647},
year = {2010}
}