Measurement of sub-picosecond electron bunches via electro-optic sampling of coherent transition radiation

Future collider applications as well as present high-gradient laser plasma wakefield accelerators and free-electron lasers operating with picosecond bunch durations place a higher demand on the time resolution of bunch distribution diagnostics. This demand has led to significant advancements in the field of electro-optic sampling over the past ten years. These methods allow the probing of diagnostic light such as coherent transition radiation or the bunch wakefields with sub-picosecond time resolution. We present results on the single-shot electro-optic spectral decoding of coherent transition radiation from bunches generated at the Fermilab A0 photoinjector laboratory. A longitudinal double-pulse modulation of the electron beam is also realized by transverse beam masking followed by a transverse-to-longitudinal phase-space exchange beamline. Live profile tuning is demonstrated by upstream beam focusing in conjunction with downstream monitoring of single-shot electro-optic spectral decoding of the coherent transition radiation.