Determination of electron beam parameters by means of laser-Compton scattering

Abstract

Laser-Compton scattering (LCS) experiments were carried out at the Idaho Accelerator Center using the 5 ns (FWHM) and 22 MeV electron beam. The electron beam was brought to an approximate head-on collision with a 29 MW, 7 ns (FWHM), 10 Hz Nd:YAG laser. Clear and narrow x-ray peaks resulting from the interaction of relativistic electrons with the Nd:YAG laser second harmonic line at 532 nm were observed. We have developed a relatively new method of using LCS as a nonintercepting electron beam monitor. Our method focused on the variation of the shape of the LCS spectrum rather than the LCS intensity as a function of the observation angle in order to extract the electron beam parameters at the interaction region. The electron beam parameters were determined by making simultaneous fits to spectra taken across the LCS x-ray cone. This scan method allowed us also to determine the variation of LCS x-ray peak energies and spectral widths as a function of the detector angles. Experimental data show that in addition to being viewed as a potential bright, tunable, and quasimonochromatic x-ray source, LCS can provide important information on the electron beam pulse length, direction, energy, angular and energy spread. Since the quality of LCS x-ray peaks, such as degree of monochromaticity, peak energy and flux, depends strongly on the electron beam parameters, LCS can therefore be viewed as an important nondestructive tool for electron beam diagnostics.