Mansfield, R. P.
(Robb P. Mansfield)

MOPOS66 Optical Mode Distortion in a Short Rayleigh Length Free Electron Laser
Joseph Blau, William B. Colson, Robb P. Mansfield, Sean P. Niles, Brett W. Williams (NPS, Monterey, CA)

A short-Rayleigh length FEL will operate primarily in the fundamental mode with a Gaussian profile that is narrow at the waist and broad at the mirrors. The gain medium will distort the optical mode profile and produce higher-order modes that will expand more rapidly than the fundamental. Wavefront propagation simulations are used to study the higher-order modes, as the cavity length, Rayleigh length, electron beam current and radius, undulator taper, and the focus positions of the optical mode and electron beam are varied.