Plasma photonic spatiotemporal synchronization of relativistic electron and laser beams
Paul Scherkl, A. Knetsch, T. Heinemann, A. Sutherland, A. F. Habib, O. Karger, D. Ullmann, A. Beaton, G. G. Manahan, Yunfeng Xi, Aihua Deng, M. Litos, B. O’Shea, S. Z. Green, C. Clarke, G. Andonian, R. Aßmann, D. L. Bruhwiler, Jeffrey C. Smith, John R. Cary, Mark Hogan, V. Yakimenko, J. Rosenzweig, B. Hidding
Abstract
We present an ultracompact plasma-based method to measure spatial and temporal concurrence of intense electron and laser beams nonintrusively at their interaction point. The electron beam couples with a laser-generated seed plasma in dependence of spatiotemporal overlap, which triggers additional plasma production and manifests as enhanced plasma afterglow. This optical observable is exploited to measure beam concurrence with $\ensuremath{\sim}4\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ spatial and $\ensuremath{\sim}26.7\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fs}$ temporal accuracy, supported by auxiliary diagnostics. The afterglow interaction fingerprint is highly sensitive and enables ultraversatile femtosecond-micrometer beam metrology.