Practical design of optical diagnostics for chirped-pulse free-electron lasers

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 318; no. 1-3; pp. 914 - 920
• Main Authors: Szarmes, Eric B., Madey, John M.J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.07.1992
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/0168-9002(92)91186-D

In recent years there have been several proposals to operate rf-linac-driven FELs with chirped electron and optical micropulses for use in fast time-resolved experiments. We have been actively pursuing this application on the Mark-III infrared FEL at Duke University, and have designed and procured an apparatus to achieve broad-band compression of chirped optical pulses between roughly 2.5 μm and 4.1 μm, with subsequent measurement of pulse widths as short as 200 fs. The principles of design for this experiment will be reviewed, and extensions of the design to other wavelengths will be considered.