Cavity dumping for free electron lasers

The cavity dumping technique, applied to free electron lasers (FEL), is described. Taking advantage of both numerical simulations and experimental results on the Mark III FEL, a fairly exhaustive analysis is reported. In particular, we show that the output peak power can be increased by a factor even higher than one hundred. The cavity dumping experiment, under way on the Mark III FEL, is discussed in some detail.