Towards a free electron laser using laser plasma acceleration on COXINEL

Since the laser invention [1, 2], the advent of Free Electron Lasers (FEL) [3, 4] in the X-ray domain half a century later, has opened new areas for matter investigation with higher temporal resolution. In parallel, the development of laser plasma acceleration (LPA) [5] that delivers today several GeV beam acceleration [6] in a short distance appears also very promising. The qualification of the LPA for FEL application can thus be viewed as an important challenge [7]. Nevertheless, present LPA electron beam parameters (e. g. energy spread and beam divergence) do not meet conventional accelerator state-of-the-art performance and FEL application requires a specific beam handling. In such a prospect, the COXINEL beam manipulation line [8, 9] using variable permanent magnet quadrupoles for emittance growth mitigation and de-mixing chicane for the energy spread handling developed at SOLEIL has been installed for using electrons produced with an intense laser of Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée (LOA). Strategies for controlling electron beam position and dispersion have been elaborated and demonstrated [10]. Finally, undulator spontaneous emission has been measured at the end of the line.