Abstract
We report the production of optically spaced attosecond electron microbunches produced by the inverse free-electron-laser (IFEL) process. The IFEL is driven by a Ti:sapphire laser synchronized with the electron beam. The IFEL is followed by a magnetic chicane that converts the energy modulation into the longitudinal microbunch structure. The microbunch train is characterized by observing coherent optical transition radiation (COTR) at multiple harmonics of the bunching. Experimental results are compared with 1D analytic theory showing good agreement. Estimates of the bunching factors are given and correspond to a microbunch length of 410 attosec FWHM. The formation of stable attosecond electron pulse trains marks an important step towards direct laser acceleration.
Highlights
The continued development of short pulse, high peak intensity lasers has led to great interest in their application to particle acceleration
The fundamental coherent optical transition radiation (COTR) signal has a large offset between laser-on and laser-off events indicating there is still significant bleed-through of laser light to the detector
The microbunches are characterized through coherent optical transition radiation (COTR), and show good agreement with an analytic theory for microbunch formation
Summary
The continued development of short pulse, high peak intensity lasers has led to great interest in their application to particle acceleration. Such lasers have succeeded in producing semimonoenergetic electron beams from plasma wakefield interactions [1,2,3]. Lasers have been used for direct acceleration between laser and electrons via inverse freeelectron-laser (IFEL) interactions [4,5], Inverse Cherenkov acceleration [6], and inverse transition radiation [7] These experiments relied on high power, low repetition rate lasers for acceleration. Using an IFEL allows optical phase control of the microbunches, a requirement for net acceleration in a two-stage experiment. It substantially reduces the length of the undulator required to form the microbunches
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