Toward the nano-FEL: Undulator and Cherenkov mechanisms of light emission in carbon nanotubes

Stimulated emission of electron beam in isolated carbon nanotube (CNT) is considered. A concept of the CNT-based monomolecular light emitter-nanoscale traveling wave tube (TWT), backward oscillator (BWO) and free-electron laser (FEL) proposed for the first time in Batrakov et al. [in: A. Lakhtakia, S.A. Maksimenko (Eds.), Proceedings of the SPIE., vol. 6328, 2006, p. 63280Z]. is discussed in more details. Two possible basic mechanisms of the device operation-the undulator and the Cherenkov mechanisms of light emission-are considered. The particular emphasis is placed to the questions of matching of CNT and electron beam parameters in order to provide resonant conditions necessary for the radiative instability evolution. The influence of the beam energy spread on the dispersion characteristics and the starting current is revealed. Numerical calculations demonstrate that the electron beam spread larger than 3-5% influences significantly the generation process in the infrared frequency range at CNT lengths of the order of 10 pm. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.