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Laser wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) can produce high-energy electron bunches in short distances. Successfully coupling these sources with undulators has the potential to form an LWFA-driven free-electron laser (FEL), providing high-intensity short-wavelength radiation. Electron bunches produced from LWFAs have a correlated distribution in longitudinal phase space: a chirp. However, both LWFAs and FELs have strict parameter requirements. The bunch chirp created using ideal LWFA parameters may not suit the FEL; for example, a chirp can reduce the high peak current required for free-electron lasing. We, therefore, design a flexible beamline that can accept either positively or negatively chirped LWFA bunches and adjust the chirp during transport to an undulator. We have used the accelerator design program MAD8 to design a beamline in stages, and to track particle bunches. The final beamline design can produce ambidirectional values of longitudinal dispersion ([Formula: see text]): we demonstrate values of + 0.20 mm, 0.00  mm and - 0.22 mm. Positive or negative values of [Formula: see text] apply a shear forward or backward in the longitudinal phase space of the electron bunch, which provides control of the bunch chirp. This chirp control during the bunch transport gives an additional free parameter and marks a new approach to matching future LWFA-driven FELs., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Attosecond duration relativistic electron bunches travelling through an undulator can generate brilliant coherent radiation in the visible to vacuum ultraviolet spectral range. We present comprehensive numerical simulations to study the properties of coherent emission for a wide range of electron energies and bunch durations, including space-charge effects. These demonstrate that electron bunches with r.m.s. duration of 50 as, nominal charge of 0.1 pC and energy range of 100-250 MeV produce [Formula: see text] coherent photons per pulse in the 100-600 nm wavelength range. We show that this can be enhanced substantially by self-compressing negatively chirped 100 pC bunches in the undulator to produce [Formula: see text] coherent photons with pulse duration of 0.5-3 fs., (© 2021. The Author(s).)