THE UCLA HIGH-GAIN INFRARED FREE-ELECTRON LASER

A high gain SASE FEL amplifier designed to operate in the infrared(nea r 10 mu m) is being commissioned in the Particle Beam Physics Laborato ry at UCLA. The high brightness beam needed to drive the FEL is provid ed by an RF photocathode gun employing solenoidal emittance compensati on. A novel linac (a Plane Wave Transformer) accelerates the beam to a final energy less than or equal to 15 MeV. This beam is to be sent th rough a 60 cm long undulator with a period of 1.5 cm and an undulator parameter K approximate to 1. Near future experiments will focus on FE L physics relevant to proposed short wavelength devices. Investigation s of start-up from noise (SASE), effects of beam parameters on gain as well as noise fluctuations are of particular interest. Here we presen t an overview of the hardware including relevant diagnostics, measured beam parameters, FEL simulation results and the status of proposed ex periments.