The UCLA high gain infrared free electron laser

A high gain SASE FEL amplifier designed to operate in the infrared (near 10 μm) is being commissioned in the Particle Beam Physics Laboratory at UCLA. The high brightness beam needed to drive the FEL is provided by an RF photocathode gun employing solenoidal emittance compensation. A novel linac (a Plane Wave Transformer) accelerates the beam to a final energy ≤ 15 MeV. This beam is to be sent through a 60 cm long undulator with a period of 1.5 cm and an undulator parameter K ≈ 1. Near future experiments will focus on FEL physics relevant to proposed short wavelength devices. Investigations of start-up from noise (SASE), effects of beam parameters on gain as well as noise fluctuations are of particular interest. Here we present an overview of the hardware including relevant diagnostics, measured beam parameters, FEL simulation results and the status of proposed experiments.