Far Infrared Coherent Synchrotron Edge Radiation at ANKA

A synchrotron radiation source emits coherent infrared (IR) radiation when the electron bunch length is comparable to the wavelength of the emitted radiation (see for example [1, 2]). To generate coherent radiation in the far IR (THz) region, a ’low alpha mode’ has been devised at the ANKA storage ring operating at 1.3 GeV. The corresponding lattice has a significantly reduced momentum compaction factor. The spectral dependence of the emitted radiation is recorded at the ANKA-IR beam line, where the synchrotron light is produced in the fringe field of a bending magnet [3]. This edge radiation has the advantage of being more collimated than constant field radiation. This allows the observation of frequencies down to 1 cm^-1through a modest vertical aperture, which would not be possible with classical constant field emission due to the increasing beam divergence with decreasing frequency. The onset of coherent emission is found at a synchrotron frequency of about 10 kHz. At 5 kHz, an intensity enhancement of up to 5 orders of magnitude, with respect to the incoherent emission, is observed in the spectral range between 1 and 65 cm^-1.