Phase-merging Enhanced Harmonic Generation Free-electron Laser

Together with one of its variants, the recently proposed phase-merging enhanced harmonic generation (PEHG) free-electron lasers (FELs) have been systematically studied in this paper. Different form the standard-HGHG, a transverse gradient undulator is employed for introducing a phase-merging effect into the transversely dispersed electron beam in PEHG. The analytical theory of the phase-merging effect and the physical mechanism behind the phenomenon were presented. Using a representative and realistic set of beam parameters, intensive start-to-end simulations for soft x-ray FEL generation were given to illustrate the performance of PEHG. Moreover, some practical issues that may affect the performance of PEHG were also discussed.