Phase conjugating plasma mirror free electron laser

摘要

A self-aligning, high-power, free electron laser (FEL) oscillator 10, comprises a self-aligning feedback, element 12 located near the electron beam input end 14 l of the FEL wiggler 16; a partially transmitting stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) plasma mirror 18 located near the output end 20 of the laser wiggler 16; and a plurality of laser beam expansion elements 32-32n located in succession on the path of the resulting output laser beam 34 for magnifying the output laser beam 34 to a desired output diameter. A totally reflecting, removable start-up mirror 30 is located between SBS plasma mirror 18 and laser beam expansion elements 32-32n. The removable start-up mirror 30 provides feedback until the SBS threshold is reached.