Generation of two-color ultra-short radiation pulses from two electron bunches and a chirped seeded free-electron laser

In this paper we describe a new method for the realization of two-color femtosecond radiation pulses in a seeded free-electron laser (FEL). The two-color pulses are obtained from two electron bunches and a chirped seeding laser. Compared to the previous methods based on seeded FELs, our method has the advantages of producing two-color FEL pulses with more flexible tunability both in the pulse durations and separations. Numerical simulations for the Dalian Coherent Light Source confirm that femtosecond XUV pulses with variable pulse durations and time delay can be directly generated from a chirped seed laser at 250 nm by using this technique. We also show the possibility of performing a proof-of-principle experiment of this technique based on the Shanghai Deep-Ultraviolet FEL facility. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.