Generation of radiation by intense plasma and electromagnetic undulators

We examine the characteristics of the classical radiation emission resulting from the interaction of a relativistic electron beam that propagates perpendicularly through a large amplitude relativistic plasma wave. Such a study is useful for evaluating the feasibility of using relativistic plasma waves as extremely short wavelength undulators for generating short wavelength radiation. The electron trajectories in a plasma wave undulator and in an ac FEL undulator are obtained using perturbation techniques. The spontaneous radiation frequency spectrum and angular distribution emitted by a single electron oscillating in these two undulators are then calculated. The radiation gain of a copropagating electromagnetic wave is calculated. The approximate analytic results for the trajectories, spontaneous radiation and gain are compared with 3-D simulation results. The characteristics of the plasma wave undulator are compared with the ac FEL undulator and linearly polarized magnetic undulator. 50 refs., 26 figs., 3 tabs