Possibility of a high-power, high-gain amplifier FEL

High-gain amplifier FEL offer many unique advantages such as robust operation without a high-Q optical cavity and potentially high extraction eaciencies with the use of tapered wigglers. Although a high average power, cw amplifier FEL has not been demonstrated, many key physics issues such as electron beam brightness requirements, single-pass gains, saturation, etc. have been resolved. In this paper, we study the feasibility of a high-power FEL based on the high-gain amplifier concept. We show that with suitable electron beam parameters, i.e. high peak current, low emittance, low energy spread, and sufficient tapered wiggler length, peak output power of 1 QW and optical pulse energy of 8 mJ can be achieved. We also outline a possible configuration of a high-power, high-gain amplifier FEL with energy recovery