Synchrotron Radiation in Periodic Magnetic Fields of FEL Undulators—Theoretical Analysis for Experiments

Abstract

A theoretical study of the synchrotron radiation (SR) from electrons in periodic magnetic fields with non-periodic magnetic components is presented. It is applied to several free electron lasers (FELs) accounting for the real characteristics of their electron beams: finite sizes, energy spread, divergence etc. All the losses and off-axis effects are accounted analytically. Exact expressions for the harmonic radiation in multiperiodic magnetic fields with non-periodic components and off-axis effects are given in terms of the generalized Bessel and Airy-type functions. Their analytical forms clearly distinguish all contributions in each polarization of the undulator radiation (UR). The application to FELs is demonstrated with the help of the analytical model for FEL harmonic power evolution, which accounts for all major losses and has been verified with the results of well documented FEL experiments. The analysis of the off-axis effects for the odd and even harmonics is performed for SPRING8 Angstrom Compact free-electron LAser (SACLA) and Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL-XFEL). The modelling describes theoretically the power levels of odd and even harmonics and the spectral line width and shape. The obtained theoretical results agree well with the available data for FEL experiments; where no data exist, we predict and explain the FEL radiation properties. The proposed theoretical approach is applicable to practically any FEL.