Transition radiation diagnostics for intense charged particle beams

An overview of recent experiments conducted in order to develop precision beam diagnostics based on optical transition radation (OTR) will be given. The aim of this series of experiments is to develop techniques to measure time-resolved beam current profiles, beam energy, and beam emittance in regimes of beam energy and current where standard methods are not readily applicable. Time-integrated values of beam energy and emittance for rf linac beams with energies of 10–30 MeV have been measured by expoiting the dependence of the angular distribution of OTR on beam energy and beam divergence. Time-resolved current profiles have been measured for a 1 kA, 800 keV single pulse beam also. Another technique using an OTR interferometer, which allows energy measurements to 1% and which is suitable for beam emittances of the order of tenths of a mrad-cm will be described.