Bunch length measurement of picosecond electron beams from a photoinjector using coherent transition radiation

The bunch length of an electron beam derived from the UCLA Saturnus photoinjector has been measured using a 45 degrees CTR foil. The sudden change of electrons boundary conditions cause them to radiate (transition radiation) with the spectral power entirely dependent upon the degree of coherency, which strongly relates to the beam size. A polarizing Michelson interferometer allowed measurement of the auto-correlation of the coherent transition radiation signal. An analysis method was developed to compensate for undetected low-frequency radiation and systematically extract the bunch length information for a specific beam model. This analysis allowed observation of pulse lengthening due to the space charge, as well as compression with the variation of the RF injection phase. The hypothesis of a satellite beam has been also tested using this analysis. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.