The Linac Coherent Light Source

A collaboration of scientists from SLAC, UCLA, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory have proposed to build the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) facility, a free-electron laser (FEL) on the SLAC site, spanning photon energies 0.8-8 keV. The laser output will be 8-10 GW with pulse lengths 230 fsec or less. The LCLS will offer unprecedented experimental opportunities in the areas of atomic physics, chemical dynamics, plasma physics, nanoscale dynamics, and biomolecular imaging. SLAC has proposed to begin engineering design of the laser in 2003, leading to project completion in 2008. The laser produces x-rays by the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) process: an intense, highly collimated pulse of 14.5 GeV electrons, traveling through a 122 m-long undulator magnet system, is induced by its own synchrotron radiation to form sub-nanometer-scale bunches. The bunching process enhances the coherence and hence the intensity of the emitted synchrotron radiation. The process is analogous to the instability of a high-gain amplifier; the ''noise'' signal that seeds the instability is the shot noise in the electron beam