Free-Electron Lasers at the ELBE - Center for High-Power Radiation Sources at the HZDR in Dresden-Rossendorf

FELBE is an acronym for the free-electron laser (FEL) at the Electron Linear accelerator with high Brilliance and Low Emittance (ELBE) located at the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany. The heart of ELBE is a superconducting linear accelerator operating in cw mode with a pulse repetition rate of 13 MHz. The acceleration is performed in two superconducting units with 20 MV each. The average beam current is 1 mA. The electron beam is guided to several laboratories where secondary beams (particle and electromagnetic) are generated (→ details). Two free-electron lasers (U37-FEL and U100-FEL), produce coherent electromagnetic radiation in the mid and far infrared (5 - 250 µm). Pulse energies are in the few 100 nJ range with pulse duration of a few  picoseconds. The typical operation mode offers 13 MHz micropulse repetition rate, in macropulses of a few 100 μs at up to 25 Hz or, alternatively,  FEL operation in a continuous 13 MHz mode.

The two free-electron lasers U37-FEL and U100-FEL with the undulators, U37 and U100, produce intense, coherent infrared radiation, which is tunable over a wide wavelength range by changing the electron energy or the undulator magnetic field.

→ FEL description

→ HZDR maintained Table of IR/THz FELs worldwide

→ UCSB compiled info on FELs worldwide

Parameters of the FEL radiation

As a user facility FELBE is open for external users.

Please see the ELBE user site for further information

Trans-National Access Program NEPHEWS

Together with 22 other synchrotron radiation and neutron facilities, the HZDR is participating in the EU project NEutrons and PHotons Elevating Worldwide Science (NEPHEWS). NEPHEWS offers free-of-charge trans-national access (TNA) to the FELBE and TELBE beamlines at the ELBE facility, covering travel and accommodation for eligible users.

NEPHEWS' focus is on supporting researchers from Finland, Romania, Greece, Estonia, Poland, Serbia, Portugal, Ukraine, and countries without large scale research infrastructures. Researchers from the other EU countries are eligible, too. However, priority is given to the countries mentioned here.

If you want to apply for TNA support, please clearly state so in your experimental proposal.

For more detailed information, please visit our site on Financial support from Trans-National Access programs.

 Here is more information about

• the undulators, the optical resonators, the lasing process, and the expected optical output power.

The infrared radiation is guided to a diagnostic station first and then delivered to six user laboratories. In some of the labs there are table-top femtosecond lasers, which are synchronized to the FEL pulses, thus providing the possibility of multi-color pump-probe experiments.

Here is more information about

• the user labs and the research using the FEL

• the optical transport line and the diagnostic system.

as well as

• the previous FEL publications.

Since 2007 the FELs are connected with the pulsed high-magnetic field laboratory.