The effects of slippage and diffraction in long wavelength operation of a free electron laser

The Free-Electron Laser user facility FELIX produces picosecond optical pulses in the wavelength range of 5–110m. The proposed installation of a new undulator with a larger magnetic period would allow extension towards considerably longer wavelengths. This would result in the production of extremely short, far-infrared pulses, with a duration of a single optical period or even less. In order to investigate the pulse propagation for free-electron lasers operating in the long wavelength limit, a three-dimensional simulation code was developed. Using the FELIX parameters, with the addition of a long-period undulator, the effects of slippage, diffraction losses, changes in the filling factor, as well as the effects of the optical cavity geometry were studied for wavelengths up to 300m, with electron pulses in the ps regime. It is shown that slippage effects are less restrictive for long wavelength operation than the increasing losses due to optical beam diffraction.