Radiation damping

Radiation damping in accelerator physics is a phenomenum where betatron oscillations and longitudinal oscilations of the particle are damped due to energy loss by synchrotron radiation. It can be used to reduce the beam emittance of a high-velocity charged particle beam.

The two main ways of using radiation damping to reduce the emittance of a particle beam are the use of undulators and damping rings (often containing undulators), both relying on the same principle of inducing synchrotron radiation to reduce the particles' momentum, then replacing the momentum only in the desired direction of motion.