Scaling EUV and X-ray Thomson Sources to Optical Free-Electron Laser Operation with Traveling-Wave Thomson-Scattering

Traveling-Wave Thomson-Scattering (TWTS) allows for the realization of ultra-compact, inherently synchronized and highly brilliant light sources by providing optical undulators with hundreds to thousands of undulator periods from high-power, pulse-front tilted lasers pulses. With TWTS the realization of optical free-electron lasers (OFELs) as well as incoherent radiation sources with orders of magnitude higher photon yields than classic head-on Thomson sources becomes possible with state-of-the-art technology in electron accelerators and laser systems. TWTS employs a side-scattering geometry where laser and electron propagation direction of motion enclose an angle. Tilting the laser pulse front with respect to the wave front by half of this interaction angle optimizes electron and laser pulse overlap by compensating the spatial offset between electrons and the laser pulse-front at the beginning of the interaction when the electrons are far from the laser pulse axis. The laser pulse-front tilt ensures continuous overlap between electrons and laser pulse while the electrons cross the laser pulse cross-sectional area. Thus the interaction distance can be controlled in TWTS by the laser pulse width rather than laser pulse duration. Utilizing wide, petawatt class laser pulses allows to realize thousands of optical undulator periods. The talk will show that TWTS OFELs emitting ultraviolet radiation are realizable today with existing technology for electron accelerators and laser systems. Especially the ultra-low emittance of laser wakefield accelerated electron beams can be exploited to compensate for their one percent level energy spreads. We discuss an experimental setup to generate the tilted TWTS laser pulses. The method presented provides dispersion compensation, required due to angular dispersion, and is especially relevant when building compact, high-yield hard X-ray TWTS sources in large interaction angle setups.