Coherent transition and diffraction radiation from a bunched 6.1 MeV electron beam

Abstract

The theory of transition radiation (TR) from an ideally conducting infinite target is well known. During the last several years the theory of diffraction radiation (DR) from simple geometry targets has further been developed. In a few experiments coherent TR and coherent DR were used to measure the electron bunch length. However, experimental investigations of coherent TR (or DR) look rather poor for finite size targets. The experimental results of investigation of coherent backward transition radiation (CBTR) and coherent backward diffraction radiation (CBDR) are presented. The intensity of CBTR and CBDR from a finite conducting target for different impact-parameters depending on the target inclination angle θ ( θ-scan) has been investigated using the 6 MeV electron beam of the Tomsk microtron. The model allowing to calculate both TR and DR characteristics for any impact-parameter h (the shortest distance between particle trajectory and target edge) was developed and tested by comparison with experimental results. The calculations were performed for the real experimental conditions. For γλ ≫ h ( γ – Lorentz-factor, λ – TR (DR) wavelength) and large detector bandwidth γ ( λ max - λ min ) h > 1 the measured TR angular distribution shows a single maximum only (like DR one) in contrast to a lobe-shaped OTR distribution.