DIFFRACTION EFFECTS IN COHERENT TRANSITION RADIATION DIAGNOSTICS FOR SUB-MM BUNCH LENGTH MEASUREMENT*

Abstract Electrons crossing the boundary between different media generate bursts of transition radiation. In the case of bunches of N electrons, the radiation is coherent and has an N-squared enhancement at wavelengths related to the longitudinal bunch distribution. This coherent transition radiation has therefore attracted attention as an interceptive charged particle beam diagnostic technique. Many analytical descriptions have been devised describing the spectral distribution generated by electron bunches colliding with thin metallic foils making different simplifying assumptions. For typical bunches having lengths in the sub-millimeter range, measurable spectra are generated up into the millimeter range. Analysis of this THz radiation is performed using optical equipment tens of millimeters in size. This gives rise to concern that optical diffraction effects may spread the wavefront of interest into regions larger than the optical elements and partially escape detection, generating a wavelengthdependent instrument response. In this paper we present a model implementing vector diffraction theory to analyze these effects in bunch length diagnostics based on coherent transition radiation