Length Measurement of High-brightness Electron Beam thanks to the 3-Phase Method

The goal of 3-phase method is to determine the length of an electron beam without dedicated diagnostics by varying the measurement conditions of its energy spread, through a change in the RF phase of an accelerating structure. The originality here comes from the fact that it is applied on high-brightness electron beams of few MeV generated by RF photo-injectors. It allows testing the accuracy of 3-phase method, since the length to reconstruct is known as being that of the laser pulse generating the beam. It requires establishing the longitudinal transfer matrix of a RF photo-injector, which is difficult since the electron velocity vary from 0 to relativistic during its path*. The 3-phase method in RF photo-injector has been simulated by ASTRA and PARMELA codes, validating the principle of the method. First measurement has been done on PHIL accelerator at LAL, showing a good agreement with the expected length. I will then show results obtained at PITZ with a standing wave booster and a comparison with those coming from a Cerenkov detector. Finally, measurements at higher energy performed on the SOLEIL LINAC with travelling wave accelerating structures will be exposed.
Proceedings of the 5th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2014, Dresden, Germany