Proposal for a IR waveguide SASE FEL at the PEGASUS injector

Free Electron Lasers up to the visible regime are dominated by diffraction effects, resulting in a radiation size much larger than the electron beam. Thus the effective field amplitude at the location of the electron beam, driving the FEL process, is reduced. By using a waveguide, the radiation field is confined within a smaller aperture and an enhancement of the FEL performance can be expected. The PEGASUS injector at UCLA will be capable to provide the brilliance needed for an IR SASE FEL. The experiment Power Enhanced Radiation Source Experiment Using Structures (PERSEUS) is proposed to study the physics of a waveguide SASE FEL in a quasi 1D environment, where diffraction effects are strongly reduced as it is the case only for future FELs operating in the VUV and X-ray regime. The expected FEL performance is given by this presentation.