Many of the more than 40 operational light sources around the world have achieved performance levels that exceed initial design goals. These accomplishments are reviewed, along with concepts and proposals for sources with performance levels exceeding those of present sources. These include storage rings with lower electron-beam emittance than present third-generation rings and free-electron lasers (FELs). It now appears that the highest performance sources will be based on linacs rather than storage rings. This is because emittance originates differently and scales differently with electron energy for rings and linacs, so that the lowest electron-beam emittance can be achieved in high-energy linacs equipped with high-brightness electron sources. Such electron beams can be used to provide X-ray beams with very high brightness and coherence in sub-picosecond pulses in a single pass through a small-gap short-period undulator by spontaneous emission, and with even higher beam brightness and coherence by stimulated coherent emission in an FEL. Designs for such FEL sources, and associated research and development, are underway at several laboratories.
Influence of the electron beam emittance on the polarization of a laser-electron x-ray generator
