RF modulator design and phase amplitude control for a high-power free-electron-laser linac

The continued interest for building tunable lasers using an electron accelerator as the source of primary energy has resulted in the design of a new accelerator. Earlier work by other members of the Los Alamos team has demonstrated that this design does work in an amplifier mode. The accelerator is to be upgraded for use in an oscillator experiment and the new rf power amplifier system must meet some of the very stringent demands for power and stability placed on the electron beam for the free-electron laser (FEL) interaction to be observed. These demands are particularly stringent because the electron beam energy ultimately will be circulated back through the accelerator so that the electron beam energy not used in the FEL interaction is not wasted. These considerations have been incorporated into the design of the second FEL system at Los Alamos and are discussed in this paper