The advantages of a negative branch unstable resonator for use with free-electron lasers

The sensitivity to misalignment of an almost concentric stable resonator is compared to that of a negative branch confocal unstable resonator, with specific applications to free-electron lasers. The practicability of both resonators is examined for both grazing and normal incidence configurations within the constraints of maximum feasible length, finite angular stability of resonator mirrors, size (determined by cooling requirements) of laser beam on mirrors, and minimum electron beam spot size in the wiggler. For the examples presented, a numerical fast Fourier transform propagation code was used.