Exponential growth, superradiance, and tunability of a seeded free electron laser.

Exponential growth and superradiance regimes in a high-gain free electron laser (FEL) are studied in this paper for both a seeded FEL and a Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) FEL. The results are compared to the earlier superrdaince theory and the recent experimental observation. The influence of an initial energy chirp along the electron bunch on the superradiance mode is explored for the first time. With a short seed to increase the initial seed bandwidth, a tunable seeded FEL is possible.