Electro-optic sampling at 90 degree interaction geometry for time-of-arrival stamping of ultrafast relativistic electron diffraction

• Main Authors: C. M. Scoby, P. Musumeci, J. T. Moody, M. S. Gutierrez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society 2010-02-01
• Series: Physical Review Special Topics. Accelerators and Beams
• Online Access: http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.13.022801

In this paper we study a new geometry setup for electro-optic sampling (EOS) where the electron beam runs parallel to the ⟨110⟩ face of a ZnTe crystal and the probe laser is perpendicular to it and to the beam path. The simple setup is used to encode the time-of-arrival information of a 3.5  MeV<10  pC electron bunch on the spatial profile of the laser pulse. The electric field lines inside the dielectric bend at an angle due to a relatively large (n∼3) index of refraction of the ZnTe crystal. We found theoretically and experimentally that the EOS signal can be maximized with a proper choice of incoming laser polarization angle. We achieved single-shot nondestructive measurement of the relative time of arrival between the pump and the probe beams thus improving the temporal resolution of ultrafast relativistic electron diffraction experiments.