Generation of frequency-chirped optical pulses in a large-slippage free-electron laser

Author

Knippels, Guido M H ; van der Meer, A.F.G. ; Oepts, D. ; van Amersfoort, P.W.

Author_Institution

FOM Inst. for Plasma Phys., Nieuwegein, Netherlands

Volume

33

Issue

1

fYear

1997

fDate

1/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

10

Lastpage

17

Abstract

We have investigated the optical output of the free-electron laser for infrared experiments (FELIX) when it is driven by an electron beam with a ramped energy. We show that the applied slow ramp on the electron beam energy leads to a frequency chirp on each picosecond optical pulse. Typical values for the chirp are 0.2% frequency sweep across a 1.5-ps-long optical pulse. The optical pulses were analyzed with a double-grating pair and with a second-order autocorrelator. The pulse duration was reduced in the double-grating pair by 20%. A linear dependence of the chirp on the cavity desynchronization was measured

Keywords

chirp modulation; diffraction gratings; free electron lasers; high-speed optical techniques; laser cavity resonators; laser variables measurement; optical correlation; optical modulation; synchronisation; 1.5 ps; FELIX; cavity desynchronization; double-grating pair; electron beam; electron beam energy; frequency chirp; frequency sweep; frequency-chirped optical pulse generation; large-slippage free-electron laser; linear dependence; optical output; picosecond optical pulse; ps-long optical pulse; pulse duration; ramped energy; second-order autocorrelator; Chirp; Electron beams; Free electron lasers; Frequency; Nonlinear optics; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Pulse compression methods; Pulse modulation; Ultrafast optics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.554867

Filename

554867