Electron Bunch Profile Diagnostics in the Few Fs Regime Using Coherent Smith-purcell Radiation*

The rapid developments in the field of laser-driven particle acceleration hold the prospect of intense, highly relativistic electron bunches that are only a few fs long. The determination of the temporal profile of such bunches presents new challenges. The use of a radiative process such as Smith-Purcell radiation (SPR), is particularly promising in this respect. In this technique the beam is made to radiate a small amount of e/m radiation and the temporal profile is reconstructed from the measured spectral distribution of the radiation. We summarise the advantages of SPR and present the design parameters and preliminary results of the experiments at the FACET facility at SLAC. We also discuss a new approach to the problem of the recovery of the ‘missing phase’, which is essential for the accurate reconstruction of the temporal bunch profile.