• C.R. Prokop, P. Piot
  Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois
• M.C. Lin, P. Stoltz
  Tech-X, Boulder, Colorado

Terahertz (THz) radiation has generated much recent interest due to its ability to penetrate deep into many organic materials without the damage associated with ionizing radiations. The generation of copious amounts of narrow-band THz radiation using a Smith-Purcell FEL operating as a backward wave oscillator is being pursued by several groups. In this paper we present start-to-end simulations of a Smith-Purcell FEL operating in the superradiant regime. Our concept incorporates a double grating configuration to efficiently bunch the electron beam, followed by a single grating to produce Smith-Purcell radiation. We demonstrate the capabilities and performances of the device, including initial beam properties (emittance and energy spread), with the help of numerical simulations using the conformal finite-difference time-domain electromagnetic solver VORPAL.