Mode distortion measurements on the Jefferson lab IR FEL

We have previously reported on the analytical calculations of mirror distortion in a high-power FEL with a near-concentric cavity. This analysis allowed us to estimate the power level at which the FEL interaction would be affected, though no exact theory of FEL power vs. distortion exists at this point. Recently we have directly measured the mode size and beam quality as a function of power using a resonator with a center wavelength of 5 μm. The resonator mirrors were calcium fluoride. This particular material exhibits a large amount of distortion for a given power but, due to the negative slope of refractive index vs. temperature, adds almost no optical phase distortion on the laser output. The mode in the cavity can thus be directly calculated from the measurements at the resonator output. The presence of angular jitter produced raw measurements inconsistent with cold cavity expectations. Removing the effects of the angular jitter, we derive results in agreement with cold cavity measurements. The resulting indicates that the FEL power is limited for the IR Demo FEL when the Rayleigh range grows by a factor of 4.3. This corresponds to spherical aberration of 0.15λ per mirror.