Real Time Bunch Length Measurements in the SLC Linac

Abstract

The longitudinal charge distribution of bunches accelerated in the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) linac will strongly affect the performance of the Collider. Bunch lengths are chosen in a balance between the deleterious effects of longitudinal and transverse wakefields. The former impacts on the beam energy spread whereas the latter is important to the transverse emittance. Two bunch length measurement ports have been installed in the SLC linac: one in the injector region and one after the emittance damping ring to linac reinjection point. These ports utilize a fused quartz Cerenkov radiator in conjunction with an electrooptic streak camera to permit real time monitoring of single s-band buckets with a resolution of several picoseconds. The design of the radiators and light collection optics is discussed with an emphasis on those issues important to high resolution. Experimental results are presented.