Demonstration of Efficient Electron-radiation Interaction in a 7th Harmonic Ifel Experiment

Many proposals and ongoing national projects exist worldwide to build a single-pass X-ray FEL amplifier in which a high-brightness, multi-GeV electron beam has a resonant energy exchange with radiation in an undulator. Because of the practical limit on the undulator period, the electron beam energy represents one of constraints on the shortest reachable wavelength. Recently the high-order harmonic FEL/IFEL interactions were considered theoretically as a technique that would allow the reduction of the beam energy without corresponding decrease in the undulator period and the magnetic field strength. We demonstrate microbunching of the 12.3 MeV electrons in a 7th order IFEL interaction, where the seed radiation frequency is seven times higher then the fundamental frequency. Strong longitudinal modulation of the beam is inferred from the observation of the first, second and third harmonics of the seed radiation in a Coherent Transition Radiation spectrum. The level of seed power is comparable to that required for microbunching at the fundamental frequency of the tenperiod-long undulator. The implications of these results for the next generation of FELs will be explored.