- Number 300 |
- November 23, 2009
Jefferson Lab FEL set for UV
The FEL ultraviolet beamline, with
prominent red and green magnets,
juts out to the right. On the left,
the infrared beamline also extends
nearly the
length of the room.
The Free-Electron Laser at DOE's Jefferson Lab successfully
transported an electron beam through its new ultraviolet beamline for
the first time on Wednesday, October 28. The machine is now just
months away from emitting its first powerful beams of ultraviolet
laser light.
In the FEL, electrons are stripped from their atoms and whipped up to
high energies by a linear accelerator. Next spring, the electrons will
be sent into the ultraviolet beamline, where they will encounter the
UV wiggler. The wiggler uses magnetic fields to shake the electrons,
forcing them to release some of their energy in the form of photons,
some of which will eventually be emitted as UV laser light.
The FEL is already the most-powerful tunable laser in the infrared and
is also a powerful source of terahertz light. This new success caps a
three-year effort to add ultraviolet capability to the FEL.
[Kandice Carter, 757/269-7263,
kcarter@jlab.org]
