Methods and apparatus are provided for modifying a free electron laser (FEL) to produce a non-diverging laser beam. A relativistic electron beam is converted to a Bessel beam in an FEL resonator with conical end mirrors, and the Bessel beam is coupled to the optical field within the laser resonator. The resultant laser beam is propagated with minimal divergence, and is wave corrected at the resonator output to produce a uniform intensity circular beam. The laser beam can be of smaller diameter than that of a conventional resonator due to its diffractionless propagation, which enables the magnetic structure gap within the resonator to be smaller, thus producing a higher optical gain.
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