Bunch length and energy measurements in the bunch compressor of a free-electron laser

Abstract

At SwissFEL, a fully noninvasive characterization of the beam energy distribution can be performed by means of a synchrotron radiation monitor (SRM) imaging in the visible the transverse profile of the electron beam in a magnetic chicane. Under conditions of off-crest acceleration in the SwissFEL injector, according to a first order Taylor series expansion, the distribution of the relative energy of the electron beam can be linearly expressed as a function of the distribution of the electron longitudinal coordinates via the coefficient of the rf induced beam energy chirp. It is hence possible to express the distribution of the electron longitudinal coordinates at the entrance of the magnetic chicane of SwissFEL as a function of the distribution of the dispersed electron trajectories in the horizontal plane of the magnetic chicane. Machine parameters and instrument data at SwissFEL can be beam-synchronously acquired. A shot-by-shot correlation between the analysis results of the SRM camera images and the linear coefficient of the beam energy chirp resulting from the rf parameters of the injector can be hence established. Finally, taking into account the compression factor of the magnetic chicane, the electron bunch length at the exit of the magnetic chicane can be expressed as a function of the horizontal size of the electron beam imaged by the SRM. Bunch length measurements performed by means of the SRM in the first magnetic chicane of SwissFEL will be presented.