PROPOSED UV FEL USER FACILITY AT BNL

The NSLS at Brookhaven National Laboratory is proposing the construction of an UV FEL operating in the wavelength range from visible to 1000 angstrom. Nanocoulomb electron pulses will be generated at a laser photocathode rf gun at a repetition rate of 10 kHz. The 6 ps pulses will be accelerated to 250 MeV in a superconducting linac. The FEL consists of an exponential growth section followed by a tapered section. The amplifier input is a harmonic of a tunable visible laser generated either by nonlinear optical material or the nonlinearity of the FEL itself. The FEL output in 10(-4) bandwidth is 1 mJ per pulse, resulting in an average power of 10 W. The availability of radiation with these characteristics would open up new opportunities in photochemistry, biology and nonlinear optics, as discussed in a recent workshop held at BNL.