Numerical investigation of the radiation characteristics of a variable-period helical undulator

A helical undulator with a variable-period capability has been developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to generate high power radiation in the terahertz range. A simulation code for the spontaneous emission from an electron beam inside an undulator has been developed to characterize the performance of the undulator. In the case of the KAERI undulator, there is a non-negligible high-order harmonics in the longitudinal field distribution compared with a bifilar one.The axial velocity modulation by the high-order harmonics in the field distribution has been found to lead to small deviation of the spectrum of spontaneous emission from the KAERI undulator with respect to the bifilars one. The gain functions obtained from the spontaneous emission spectra according to the Madey theory, show similar shapes for both undulators.