Multi-bunch Operation Mode for Simultaneously Serving SASE and Seeding FEL Beamlines

Modern free-electron laser (FEL) facilities are de-signed to simultaneously serve multiple undulator lines to provide x-ray pulses with high peak power and tunable wavelengths. To satisfy different scientific demands, it is preferred to make the separate undulator lines work under different FEL schemes, such as the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) scheme and the echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG) scheme. However, different FEL schemes have differ-ent requirements on the beam longitudinal distribu-tion. Here, we propose to use multiple bunches to sim-ultaneously serve the undulator lines and put the bunches at different acceleration phase to change the bunch length with two compressor chicanes. The ac-celeration phase for each bunch is varied by adjusting the time delays of the photocathode drive laser pulses with the accelerator settings unchanged. The start-to-end simulation demonstrates that a fs bunch with high peak current can be produced to serve the SASE line while a bunch with hundred-of-fs length and uniform current distribution can be produced to serve the EEHG line. The FEL performances are simulated and discussed.