Efficiency enhancement in free-electron lasers by means of concurrent rf acceleration

Efficiency enhancement in free-electron lasers (FELs) using rf beam acceleration in the wiggler is described. Since the beam tube is a waveguide, there are low and high frequency resonances. Injection of low frequency power can act as an inverse-FEL accelerator concurrently with high frequency power extraction. Simulation of a FEL using this technique shows that substantial efficiency enhancements are possible without significant increases in the beam energy spread, which facilitates the use of energy recovery schemes. The technique is applicable to amplifier and oscillator configurations.