RF Stability in Energy Recovering Free Electron Lasers: Theory and Experiment

Phenomena that result from the interaction of the beam with the rf fields in superconducting cavities, and can potentially limit the performance of high average power Energy Recovery Free Electron Lasers (FELs), are reviewed. These phenomena include transverse and longitudinal multipass, multibunch Beam Breakup, longitudinal beam-loading types of instabilities and their interaction with the FEL, Higher Order Mode power dissipation, emittance growth and energy spread due to short range wakefields, and rf control issues. We present experimental data obtained at the Jefferson Lab IR FEL with average current up to 5 mA, compare with analytic calculations and simulations and extrapolate the performance of Energy Recovery FELs to much higher average currents, up to approximately 100 mA. This work supported by U.S. DOE Contract No. DE-AC05-84ER40150, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Laser Processing Consortium