OPERATION AND COMMISSIONING OF THE JEFFERSON LAB UV FEL USING AN SRF DRIVER ERL

We describe the operation and commissioning of the Jefferson Lab UV FEL using a CW SRF ERL driver. Based on the same 135 MeV linear accelerator as the Jefferson Lab 10 kW IR Upgrade FEL, the UV driver ERL uses a bypass geometry to provide transverse phase space control, bunch length compression, and nonlinear aberration compensation necessitating a unique set of commissioning and operational procedures. Additionally, a novel technique to initiate lasing is described. To meet these constraints and accommodate a challenging installation schedule, we adopted a staged commissioning plan with alternating installation and operation periods. This report addresses these issues and presents operational results from on-going beam operations.