Abstract
A significant advance in laser-driven plasma accelerator (LPA) electron-beam diagnostics has recently been demonstrated based on coherent optical transition radiation (COTR) imaging. We find COTR signal strengths from a microbunched subset of beam exiting the LPA to be several orders of magnitude higher than that of incoherent optical transition radiation (OTR). The transverse sizes are only a few microns as deduced from the point-spread-function-related lobe structure. In addition, the far-field COTR interferometric images obtained on the same shot provide beam-size limits plus divergence and pointing information at the sub-mrad level when compared to a modified analytical model. The integrated image intensities can be used to estimate the microbunching fraction and relatable to the LPA process. Initial results in a collaborative LPA experiment will be reported for electron beam energies of about 215 MeV. A revised configuration is proposed to record energy and ene rgy spread via COTR on the same shot with the interferometer.
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