Efficiency enhancement experimentwith a tapered undulator in a single-pass seeded fel at the NSLS SDL

The experimental observation of FEL efficiency enhancement using a tapered undulator in a single-pass seeded FEL at the NSLS SDL is reported. The last 2.5 m of the 10 m NISUS undulator was linearly tapered so that the magnetic field strength at the end of the undulator was reduced by 5 %. The FEL energy gain along the undulator was measured for both the tapered and un-tapered undulators. We observed that the FEL efficiency was more than doubled by applying the taper. The experimental results are compared with the numerical simulation code, GENESIS1.3