Free electron Lasers employing High Gain Harmonic generation (HGHG) schemes are very promising coherent ligth sources for the soft X-ray regime. They offer both transverse and longitudinal coherence, while Self Amplified Spontaneous Emission schemes have a longitudinal coherence limited. We propose here to seed HGHG with high harmonics produced by a Ti:Sa femtosecond laser focused on a gas jet, tuneable in the 100-10 nm spectral region. Specifities concerning the implementation of this particular laser source as a seed for HGHG are investigated. Semi analytical , numerical 1D and 3D calculations are given, for the cases of the SCSS, SPARC and ARC-EN-CIEL projects.

The SPring-8 Compact SASE Source (SCSS) is a SASE-FEL project aiming at soft X-ray radiation at its first stage using 1 GeV electron beams. One of the unique features of the SCSS is the use of a pulsed high-voltage electron gun with a thermionic cathode. Main reason for this choice is its high stability and the well developed technology relating to the gun. Meanwhile, the electron bunch should be compressed properly at the injector in order to obtain sufficient peak currents. In this presentation, the results of the electron beam simulations along the accelerator and the expected parameters of the electron beam will be given.