The IR and THz Free Electron Laser at the Fritz-Haber-Institut

A mid-infrared oscillator FEL with a design wavelength range from 4 to 50 μm has been commissioned at the Fritz-Haber-Institut in Berlin, Germany, for applications in molecular and cluster spectroscopy as well as surface science. The accelerator consists of a thermionic gridded electron gun, a subharmonic buncher and two S-band standing-wave copper structures. The device was designed to meet challenging specifications, including a final energy adjustable in the range of 15 to 50 MeV, low longitudinal emittance (< 50 keV-psec) and transverse emittance (< 20 Pi mm-mrad), at more than 200 pC bunch charge with a micro pulse repetition rate of 1 GHz and a macro pulse length of up to 15 μs. Two isochronous achromatic 180 degree bends deliver the beam to the undulators, only one of which is presently installed, and to the beam dumps. Calculations of the FEL gain and IR-cavity losses predict that lasing will be possible in the wavelength range from less than 4 to more than 50 μm. First lasing was achieved at a wavelength of 16 μm in 2012*. We will describe the FEL system design and performance, provide examples of lasing, and touch on the first anticipated user experiments.

*W. Schoellkopf et al., MOOB01, Proc. FEL 2012