A Simple, Low Cost Longitudinal Phase Space Diagnostic

For proper operation of the LCLS [1] x-ray free-electron laser (FEL), and other similar machines, measurement and control of the electron bunch longitudinal phase space is critical. The LCLS accelerator includes two bunch compressor chicanes to magnify the peak current. These magnetic chicanes can generate significant coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR), which can distort the phase space distribution. We propose a diagnostic scheme by exciting a weak skew quadrupole at an energy-chirped, high dispersion point in the first LCLS bunch compressor (BC1) to reconstruct longitudinal phase space on an OTR screen after BC1, allowing a time-resolved characterization of CSR effects