Dependence of volume FEL (VFEL) threshold conditions on undulator parameters

Abstract

The idea and principles of volume free electron lasers were proposed in [1-4]. It was shown there that volume distributed feedback (VDFB) can essentially reduce the threshold current of generation and provide the possibility of smooth frequency tuning. The present work considers an undulator VFEL with multiwave VDFB. It is shown that dependence of threshold current on the interaction length changes in the point of roots degeneration. This leads to the sharp decrease of start current if condition of dynamical diffraction is fulfilled. The dependence of amplification coefficient changes, too. So the interaction length for generation appears shorter. The proposed scheme can be used for generation in wide spectral range from microwaves to X-rays. The operating features of undulator VFEL is considered.