169 / 2025-03-16 12:36:46

Progress in Free-Electron Lasers Based on Laser Wakefield Accelerators at SIOM

laser wakefield acclelerator,Free-electron Laser,compact sources,High quality,High stablity

The research team at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM) is dedicated to the study of compact free-electron laser (FEL) sources driven by laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). They have achieved electron beams with the smallest energy spread and highest brightness in LWFA and have taken the lead in completing the proof-of-principle demonstration for a compact FEL source. However, due to the instability of the interaction between intense lasers and plasma, as well as the non-uniformity of laser wakefields, the quality of electron beams produced by LWFA still has room for improvement. At present, this compact FEL operates in the exponential gain regime, and its radiation power requires further enhancement. Overcoming the current bottlenecks and achieving GW-scale saturated amplification has become the key breakthrough for the next stage of compact FEL sources.

This talk describes a ten-year roadmap for the C2FEL project at SIOM, outlined by the research team over the past five years. This roadmap focuses on several areas, including improving the quality of LWFA, developing feasible schemes for compact FELs, and exploring new principles of radiation using high phase-space density electron beams. These efforts aim to gradually advance and lead the development of the compact FEL field, ultimately driving the realization of these miniaturized, high-brightness coherent light sources.