Enhanced Coherent Emission of Terahertz Radiation by Energy-Phase Correlation in a Bunched Electron Beam

Abstract

We report the first observation of enhanced coherent emission of terahertz radiation in a compact free electron laser. A radio-frequency (rf) modulated electron beam is passed through a magnetic undulator emitting coherent radiation at harmonics of the rf with a phase which depends on the electron drift velocity. A proper correlation between the energy and phase distributions of the electrons in the bunch has been exploited to lock in phase the radiated field, resulting in over 1 order of magnitude enhancement of the coherent emission.