Ultrafast visualization of an electric field around relativistic electron beams

Abstract

Electro-optic (EO) sampling is a powerful non-destructive technique for measuring terahertz (THz) electric field with high temporal resolution. EO sampling is a popular method for monitoring the electron beams in accelerators because the measurement of the electric field pulse width directly corresponds to the width of the electron beam. Previous researches mainly focused on measuring the temporal profile. In this work, we also measure the spatial (radial) profile that is perpendicular to the propagation (longitudinal/temporal direction). The measurement of the electric field profiles in both time and space paves the way to access the spatio-temporal electron beam profile, which makes this method promising for a high-order harmonic generation-seeded free-electron laser (FEL). In this research, we investigated the electric field strength profile and the pulse broadening in the radial direction based on the spatio-temporal electric field around a picosecond relativistic electron beam with an energy of 35 MeV. Special relativity predicts that the electric field contracts in the propagation direction and becomes like a disk with a uniform thickness. With this postulate, the Gauss’ theorem in cylindrical coordinates can be applied to the experimental results to deduce the electron beam size from the electric field profile.