BNL Source Development Laboratory

The NSLS has a long-standing interest in providing the best possible synchrotron radiation sources for its user community, and hence, has recently established the Source Development Laboratory (SDL) to pursue research into fourth generation synchrotron radiation sources. A major element of the program includes development of a high peak power FEL meant to operate in the vacuum ultraviolet. The objective of the program is to develop the source, and experimental technology together to provide the greatest impact on UV science. The accelerator under construction for the SDL consists of a high brightness rf photocathode electron gun followed by a 230 MeV short pulse linac incorporating a magnetic chicane for pulse compression. The gun drive laser is a wide bandwidth Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier capable of pulse shaping which will be used to study non-linear emittance compensation. Using the compressor, 1 nC bunches with a length as small as 50 micrometer sigma (2 kA peak current) are available for experiments. In this paper we briefly describe the facility and detail our plans for utilizing the 10 m long NISUS wiggler to carry out single pass FEL experiments. These include a 1 micrometer SASE demonstration, a seeded beam demonstration at 300 nm, and a high gain harmonic generation experiment at 200 nm. The application of chirped pulse amplification to this type of FEL also is discussed.