Collaboration with the LMU Munich: a compact synchrotron radiation source.

In the recent years a new type of very compact particle accelerators has emerged, which is based not on RF-cavities but on plasma. A plasma is capable of supporting local electric fields of up to 100 GV/m and plasma accelerators are expected to produce electron beams with energies in the GeV range and a bunch charge in the nano-Coulomb range in the near future. By combining these devices with short period superconducting undulators it is possible to create very compact synchrotron radiation sources.

This collaboration project investigates the possibilities of such novel synchrotron radiation sources. At the LMU a Laser Wakefield Accelerator (LWFA) is available which will be combined with a superconducting undulator developed by the LAS. The resulting synchrotron radiation source is expected to produce soft X-rays with a very high brilliance and a very short pulses (~10 fs). This would offer unique possibilities for femto second physics. Later upgrades of the Laser and improved undulators may produce ratiation in the hard X-ray range which is interesting for medical and industrial applications. A possible outcome in the far future may be the development of a compact (X-)FEL using the SASE effect, a so called 'table top FEL'.