Optical klystron enhancement to self-amplified spontaneous emission free electron lasers

The optical klystron enhancement to self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) free electron lasers (FELs) is studied in theory and in simulations. In contrast to a seeded FEL, the optical klystron gain in a SASE FEL is not sensitive to any phase mismatch between the radiation and the microbunched electron beam. The FEL performance with the addition of four optical klystrons located at the undulator long breaks in the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) shows significant improvement if the uncorrelated energy spread at the undulator entrance can be controlled to a very small level. In addition, FEL saturation at shorter x-ray wavelengths (around 1.0   Å) within the LCLS undulator length becomes possible. We also discuss the application of the optical klystron in a compact x-ray FEL design that employs relatively low electron beam energy together with a shorter-period undulator.