Transverse-to-longitudinal phase space exchange: a versatile tool for shaping the current and energy profiles of relativistic electron bunches

Over the recent years, the emergence of accelerator beamlines capable of exchanging the phase space coordinates between two degrees of freedom have opened the path toward the precise control of phase space distribution and in particular to the production of relativistic electron beams with shaped current profiles. After briefly reviewing the technique, we present its application to produce a train of sub-picosecond microbunches and report on its experimental implementation at the Fermilab's A0 photoinjector facility.