Dispersion relation and growth rate in a free-electron laser with a background plasma

Abstract

The method of perturbation has been applied to derive a general dispersion relation for a free-electron laser (FEL) with background plasma and helical wiggler in the presence of an axial magnetic field. This dispersion relation is solved numerically to find unstable interactions among all of the wave modes. Numerical calculations show that new coupling between the left wave and positive-energy space-charge of electron beam are found when wiggler induced velocity is large. This coupling does not change with increasing the plasma density. The growth rate of FEL is changed with increasing the plasma density and the normalized axial magnetic field.