A proof-of-principle experiment on a new diagnostic tool for determining beam sizes from angular distributions of parametric X-ray radiation

Abstract

A previously proposed technique for measuring the transverse sizes of an electron beam was verified experimentally by comparing the angular distributions of parametric X-ray radiation in a thin crystal for two distances between the crystal and the detector. The measurements were performed on a 255-MeV electron beam incident on a 20 μm-thick silicon crystal. The angular distributions of parametric X-ray radiation were measured using an imaging plate as a two-dimensional position-sensitive detector. The obtained horizontal and vertical beam sizes were in good agreement with the results of measurements by optical transition radiation. The proposed method would be useful for electron beam diagnostics for recently advanced linear accelerators where optical transition radiation cannot be used as a beam profile monitor owing to the coherent effect.