Initial performance of Los Alamos Advanced Free-Electron Laser

Many industrial and research applications can benefit from the availability of a compact, turn-key laser that puts out 100 watts or more of tunable light. Free-electron lasers are inherently capable of generating light over a wide wavelength band with high average powers, In the past, FELs have been typically large and complex machines. Over the past three years, Los Alamos has sponsored an engineering effort to design, build and test a compact and versatile free-electron laser called the Advanced FEL. The design of this compact FEL is based on integration of a number of advanced technologies that have emerged over the last ten years such as the photoinjector, the high-gradient linear accelerator, and the pulsed electromagnet microwiggler. These enabling technologies allow us to shrink the size of the Advanced FEL so that it will fit in a small laboratory, yet still be capable of providing high average powers in the near-ir, visible or even ultraviolet. The compact beamline is made up of permanent magnet components that do not require cooling or power sources. The entire beamline and the FEL resonator fit on a 6-ft by 10-ft vertical optical table