Investigation of short pulse effects in IR FELs and new simulation results

The Darmstadt IR FEL is designed to generate wavelengths between 3 and 10 μm and driven by the superconducting electron linear accelerator. The pulsed electron beam has a peak current of 2.7 A leading to a small signal gain of 5%. Currently, investigations of the energy transfer process inside the undulator are performed using the 1D time-dependent simulation code FAST1D-OSC. We present simulation results for the power vs. different desynchronization and tapering parameters as well as a comparison with experimental data from the S-DALINAC IR-FEL. Furthermore, a compact autocorrelation system assuring a background-free measurement of the optical pulse length is described. In a first test experiment at FELIX, the autocorrelator has been tested at wavelengths 5.7⩽λ⩽9.0 μm. The frequency doubling in a 2 mm-long ZnGeP2-crystal resulted in a time resolution of 300 fs and a conversion efficiency of 5%.