Phase sensitive monitoring of electron bunch form and arrival time in superconducting linear accelerators.

In this Letter, we present a simple approach for monitoring electron bunch form and arrival time combining electro-optic sampling and phase and frequency sensitive signal detection. The sensitivity of the technique has the potential to allow online diagnostics to be performed down to bunch charges in the femto coulomb regime. The concept has high impact for the developments of the next generation of 4th generation x-ray light sources working with long pulse trains or continuous wave mode of operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]