An X-ray transition radiation beam profile detector for the LCLS

We discuss the characteristics of a transverse beam profile detector for a high energy charged particle accelerator, and propose a candidate detector based on transition radiation in the X-ray region of the spectrum. The detector is useful for low emittance, high energy beams, for example, the LCLS electron beam. We expect that it can resolve spatial details as small as a few microns. The advantages of this method over previous ones are that the measurements are linear with the beam density and the results are a point by point map of the beam density. copyright 1999 American Institute of Physics