This book presents a comprehensive description of the physics of free-electron lasers starting from the fundamentals and proceeding through detailed derivations of the equations describing electron trajectories, and spontaneous and stimulated emission. Linear and nonlinear analyses are described, as are detailed explanations of the nonlinear simulation of a variety of configurations including amplifiers, oscillators, self-amplified spontaneous emission, high-gain harmonic generation, and optical klystrons. Theory and simulation are anchored using comprehensive comparisons with a wide variety of experiments.

Henry Freund is a Research Professor in the ECE Department at the University of New Mexico and the University of Maryland.

Thomas M. Antonsen, Jr. is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland.