Lasing at 12 µm Mid-Infrared Free-Electron Laser in Kyoto University

Laser amplification using a 12 µm mid-infrared free-electron laser (MIR-FEL) was observed at the Institute of Advanced Energy (IAE), Kyoto University. A 25 MeV electron beam of 17 A peak current was used for the lasing experiment. A beam loading compensation method with an RF amplitude control in the thermionic RF gun was used to extend the macropulse duration against the backbombardment effect in the thermionic RF gun. As a result, an electron beam with a 4 µs duration was generated. A laser output with an intensity 50 times as high as the spontaneous emission intensity was observed. FEL gain was estimated to be 16% from the exponential growth of the laser output signal, and a cavity loss of 2.8% was estimated from the decay of the laser output signal. Three-dimensional (3D) FEL simulation was also performed to achieve the gain saturation in our FEL device.