Applications of tunable infrared (IR) picosecond (ps) pulses generated by free-electron lasers (FELs) are considered from several perspectives. The authors discuss the performance specifications required for a successful applications program. They present a real-world example where the superconducting acceleration-pumped FEL at Stanford University was used to perform a complex series of experiments to measure nonlinear and coherent optical transients in an amorphous solid. The authors discuss quantitative experimental considerations that go into deciding whether a particular application is feasible. Finally, they present some selected examples of proposed applications.
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