High-gain quantum free-electron laser: Long-time dynamics and requirements

We solve the long-time dynamics of a high-gain free-electron laser in the quantum regime. In this regime each electron emits at most one photon on average, independently of the initial field. In contrast, the variance of the photon statistics shows a qualitatively different behavior for different initial states of the field. We find that the realization of a seeded quantum free-electron laser is more feasible than self-amplified spontaneous emission.