The strong focusing VISA undulator is presented in this report. The proposed FEL will operate at the 1 {micro}m water window. Extensive simulations were performed to optimize an FEL amplifier based on the two-meter long VISA undulator which has a period of 1.8 cm and an undulator parameter K = 1.26. The betatron function inside the VISA undulator is about 30 cm. For an electron beam with a peak current {approx}1 kA and a normalized emittance of 5 mm-mrad, the FEL peak power can exceed 1 GW within the 2 m VISA undulator using a 5 kW peak power seed laser. Such a device can produce a megawatt of average power for a 700 MHz rep rate. The transverse distribution of the FEL radiation along the undulator, as well as after the undulator, is explored by numerical simulation. The FEL power density at 5 m downstream from the undulator is less than 100 kW/cm{sup 2} for this MW-class FEL. We will also discuss the feasibility of an experimental demonstration of the laser seeded FEL amplifier based on the 2-m VISA undulator at the NSLS Source Development Lab (SDL).

Borehole seismology is the highest resolution geophysical imaging technique available today to the oil and gas industry for characterization and monitoring of oil and gas reservoirs. However, the industry's ability to economically do high resolution 3D imaging of deep and complex gas reservoirs using borehole seismology is currently hampered by the lack of the acquisition technology necessary to record the large volumes of the high frequency, high signal-to-noise-ratio borehole seismic data needed to do 3D imaging. This project takes direct aim at this shortcoming by developing a 400 level 3C clamped downhole seismic receiver array, and accompanying software, for borehole seismic 3D imaging. This large borehole seismic array will remove the technical acquisition barrier for recording the necessary volumes of data to do high resolution 3D VSP or 3D cross well seismic imaging. Massive 3D VSP{reg_sign} and long range Cross-Well Seismology (CWS) are two of the borehole seismic techniques that will allow the Gas industry to take the next step in their quest for higher resolution images of the gas reservoirs for the purpose of improving the recovery of the natural gas resources. Today only a fraction of the original Oil or Gas in place is produced when reservoirs are …

Experimental characterization of a near-IR FEL amplifier at the NSLS SDL is presented in this report. SASE was observed from 0.8-1 {micro}m with 5 orders of magnitude gain. We have experimentally demonstrated saturation of a laser seeded FEL amplifier and control of the FEL output by the seed laser. Nonlinear harmonics have also been explored. The FEL pulse length for the first three harmonics was experimentally characterized and the increase of the FEL pulse length with harmonic number was observed for the first time. Computer simulation confirmed that the observed wide spectrum of the laser seeded FEL is due to the positive chirp of the seed laser.

Superradiance and nonlinear evolution of a FEL pulse in a single-pass FEL were experimentally demonstrated at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) Source Development Laboratory (SDL). The experiment was performed using a 1.5 ps high-brightness electron beam and a 100fs Ti:Sapphire seed laser. The seed laser and electron beam interact in the 10 meter long NISUS undulator with a period of 3.89 cm. The FEL spectrum, energy and pulse length along the undulator were measured. FEL saturation was observed, and gain of more the 200 (relative to seed laser) was measured. Both FEL spectrum widening and pulse length shortening were observed; FEL pulses as short as 65 fs FWHM were measured. The superradiance and nonlinear evolution were also simulated using the numerical code GENESIS1.3 yielding good agreement with the experimental results.

Historically, the first demonstration of the optical FEL was in an amplifier configuration at Stanford University [l]. There were other notable instances of amplifying a seed laser, such as the LLNL PALADIN amplifier [2] and the BNL ATF High-Gain Harmonic Generation FEL [3]. However, for the most part FELs are operated as oscillators or self amplified spontaneous emission devices. Yet, in wavelength regimes where a conventional laser seed can be used, the FEL can be used as an amplifier. One promising application is for very high average power generation, for instance FEL's with average power of 100 kW or more. The high electron beam power, high brightness and high efficiency that can be achieved with photoinjectors and superconducting Energy Recovery Linacs (ERL) combine well with the high-gain FEL amplifier to produce unprecedented average power FELs. This combination has a number of advantages. In particular, we show that for a given FEL power, an FEL amplifier can introduce lower energy spread in the beam as compared to a traditional oscillator. This properly gives the ERL based FEL amplifier a great wall-plug to optical power efficiency advantage. The optics for an amplifier is simple and compact. In addition to the general features …

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High Gain Harmonic Generation FEL is in operations at the DUV-FEL facility (BNL). During HGHG FEL characterization we have measured a set of data demonstrating basic properties of the FEL radiation and compared them with analytic calculations [1]. This paper describes continuation of characterization of the HGHG FEL radiation output, based on the spectral measurements. We discuss analysis of an experiment at which the tunability concept of a seeded FEL with a fixed seed wavelength has been verified [2]. During the experiment we recorded about 200 radiation spectra corresponding to different energy chirps in the electron beam. We have analyzed this set of spectral data to obtain statistical properties of HGHG radiation. Correlations and trends in the radiation spectrum at 266 nm have been observed and studied.