Advanced Free-Electron Laser Facility

The Los Alamos Advanced Free-Electron Laser (AFEL) Facility is a versatile tool for applications requiring high-brightness electron beams or a tunable source of high-energy infrared light pulses in the wavelength range of 4 microns to 100 microns. This machine has been used to address a wide diversity of research topics. For instance, the AFEL has been used to measure the wavelength dependent absorption of tissue, to characterize the infrared transmission of fibers at long wavelengths, to generate plasmas for atomic line x-ray production, and for the Compton-scattering generation of x-rays. The AFEL is an office-size machine suitable for commercialization for a large-market product; it is designed to be robust and have low maintenance requirements.

The AFEL's electron beam's operational parameters are

• adjustable 10 MeV to 20 MeV electron pulses with charges of 1 to 10 Nc per 10 ps micropulse (the10 ps micropulses are separated by 10 ns and this envelope has a 1 to 2,000 micropulse duration)
• maximum repetition rate of 10 Hz

The AFEL laser beam's operational parameters are

• pulse energies near 1 joule at a selectable wavelength from 4 to 100 microns for a 1 to 20 microsecond (same pulse format as the electron beam)

Equipment

• tunable infrared laser
• high-brightness electron beam
• 1 micron laser with 2nd and 4th harmonics
• infrared detectors
• spectrometers, and other infrared and visible optics
• 2 ps streak camera
• up to 20 MW of 1,300 Mhz rf

Facility Access

Open

Last Update: 25 June 2003

Technical Contact
Dinh Nguyen
NIS-10
Mail Stop: H851
Phone: 505-667-9385
Fax: 505-667-8207
E-mail Address: dcnguyen@lanl.gov