Linear Theory of Free Electron Laser with a Plasma-Loaded Cylindrical Waveguide

The dispersion characteristics of plasma–loaded free-electron laser has been analyzed using linear fluid model. The device under consideration consists of the cylindrical metallic waveguide, completely filled with background plasma and a relativistic electron beam which passes through a helical wiggler magnetic field. The result predicts that reasonable plasma density tends to improve the growth rate of the low-frequency optical wave of FEL and causes an shiftup in the operating frequency, However it has little effect on the growth rate of the high-frequency wave. In the plasma–loaded FEL, for the FEL oscillator, it may be tuned by varying the plasma density; and for the FEL amplifier, the wider frequency bandwidth is gained. A critical density n ^c _p for the background plasma density is found.