Electron-Beam Noise and spontaneous emission Suppression and the Fundamental Coherence Limits of Free Electron Radiators

It is shown that the electron beam current noise can be reduced at optical frequencies below the classical shot-noise limit. This self-ordering phenomenon takes place due to longitudinal collective Coulomb interaction when the beam parameters are set to excite Langmuir plasma-wave single mode oscillation [1]. Full 3-D particle dynamics simulations confirm the theoretical model. Based on this result, it is shown that it is possible to obtain sub-radiance (in the sense of Dicke [2]) of spontaneous emission from electron-beam radiators. This results in fundamental limit expressions for the coherence of FELs and other e-beam radiators, analogously to the Schawlow-Towns limit [3]. Surpassing the shot-noise limit, the coherence of free electron laser radiation is limited by the e-beam energy spread at frequencies below the IR, and fundamentally limited by quantum noise at higher frequencies.