Bunch Length Measurement Employing Cherenkov Radiation from a Thin Silica Aerogel

The temporal profile measurement for ultra-short electron bunches is one of the key issues for accelerator-based coherent light sources. A bunch length measurement system using Cherenkov radiation (CR) is under development at the Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Tohoku University. This system allows for the real-time diagnostics of electron bunches. The system comprises a thin silica aerogel as the Cherenkov radiator, a specially designed optical transport line, and a high-speed streak camera. The electron bunch length can be obtained by measuring the time spread of the CR from the electrons passing through the radiator medium using the streak camera. In this paper, we describe the novel bunch length measurement system using CR, discuss the expected time resolution of the system, and finally present the measurement results.