FIRST LASING IN ALICE FREE ELECTRON LASER

MESSAGE of CONGRATULATIONS  from the DIRECTOR

Congratulations to Prof. Jim Clarke and the entire ALICE team and associated collaborators from across UK and the world as the scientists and engineers at Daresbury achieve first lasing in the  ALICE Free Electron laser!! This achievement together with  the ongoing successful commissioning of EMMA, the world’s first non-scaling Fixed Field Alternating Gradient synchrotron, initiates a step change in the scientific horizons at Daresbury laboratory, a  major stake holding partner in the Cockcroft Institute. Please see the message from Jim below and take the time to congratulate his entire team!

Swapan Chattopadhyay, Director, Cockcroft Institute

MESSAGE from Prof. Jim Clarke on FIRST LASING IN ALICE FREE ELECTRON LASER

I am delighted to announce that the Infra Red Free Electron Laser installed on the ALICE accelerator at STFC Daresbury Laboratory lased for the first time on Saturday 23rd October 2010 at 16:35. Present in the Control Room were Neil Thompson, Peter Williams, Stephen Hill, and Yuri Saveliev. The recent hardware changes made to ALICE to enable the bunch charge to increase by more than 50% has quickly led to this successful outcome. Once established, the FEL lased for several hours at about 8 microns wavelength and appeared quite tolerant to the machine settings. A scan of output power vs the cavity length showed the expected behaviour (see below). The maximum output power observed so far is 20.7mW. The next step for the project will be to thoroughly characterize the FEL performance and output properties.

I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in us reaching this significant milestone. This achievement is, of course, due to the hard work and dedication of the entire ALICE Team. The Team, which is made up of staff from ASTeC, Technology Department, and Photon Science Department, has also benefitted greatly from the advice and encouragement of many friends and colleagues in the international accelerator community. In the case of the FEL it has also benefitted from specific equipment loaned to the project by Jefferson Laboratory and LURE (CNRS). I would particularly like to thank the FEL commissioning group, which is made up of Neil Thompson, Dave Dunning, Mark Surman, and Andy Smith, who have worked long hours, late nights, and given up many weekends to be able to reach this point.