Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Undulators serve as the primary source of radiation for modern storage rings, and more recently for the advent of Free-Electron Lasers (FELs). The performance of future FELs can be greatly enhanced using the much higher magnetic fields of superconducting undulators (SCU) [1]. For example, the LCLS-II hard x-ray undulator can be shortened by up to 70 m using an SCU in place of a PMU (permanent magnet undulator), or its spectral performance can be critically improved when using a similar length. In addition, SCUs are expected to be orders of magnitude less sensitive to radiation dose; a major issue at LCLS-II with its 1-MHz electron bunch rate. We present a funded R&D collaboration between SLAC, ANL, and LBNL, which aims to demonstrate the viability of superconducting undulators for FELs by building, testing, measuring, and tuning two 1.5-m long planar SCU prototypes using two different technologies: NbTi at ANL and Nb3Sn at LBNL. Our goal is to review and reassess the LCLS-II HXR baseline plans (PMU) in July of 2015, after the development and evaluation of both prototypes, possibly in favor of an SCU for LCLS-II.