Evolution of transverse modes in a high-gain free-electron laser
At the point of saturation in a high-gain free-electron laser (FEL) the light is fully transversely coherent. The number and evolution of the transverse modes is important for the effective tune-up and subsequent operation of FELs based on the photon beam characterization and in designing multi-module devices that rely on relatively stable saturation distances in each module. In the latter, this i