Self-amplified spontaneous emission free electron laser devices and nonideal electron beam transport

We have developed, at the SPARC test facility, a procedure for a real time self-amplified spontaneous emission free electron laser (FEL) device performance control. We describe an actual FEL, including electron and optical beam transport, through a set of analytical formulas, allowing a fast and reliable on-line “simulation” of the experiment. The system is designed in such a way that the characteristics of the transport elements and the laser intensity are measured and adjusted, via a real time computation, during the experimental run, to obtain an on-line feedback of the laser performances. The detail of the procedure and the relevant experimental results are discussed.