Plasma-driven ultrashort bunch diagnostic

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel plasma-driven method for diagnosing ultrashort electron bunches by using laser-driven wakefields to map their longitudinal phase space with attosecond resolution.

Contribution

The paper presents a new plasma-based streaking technique that enables high-resolution measurement of ultrashort electron bunches, surpassing existing methods.

Findings

Achieved attosecond time resolution in simulations

Demonstrated effective mapping of longitudinal phase space

Proposed a practical implementation using laser-driven plasma wakefields

Abstract

Ultrashort electron bunches are crucial for an increasing number of applications, however, diagnosing their longitudinal phase space remains a challenge. We propose a new method that harnesses the strong electric fields present in a laser driven plasma wakefield. By transversely displacing driver laser and witness bunch, a streaking field is applied to the bunch. This field maps the time information to a transverse momentum change and, consequently, to a change of transverse position. We illustrate our method with simulations where we achieve a time resolution in the attosecond range.