Beam emittance from coherent Cherenkov radiation in a solid dielectric

We report experimental results of a technique for direct measurement of the emittance in high energy beams. This technique is analogous to the well known “pepper pot” masking approach, but with no upper limit on particle energy. Single shot emittance profiles were obtained on the 10 kA, 4 MeV Sandia National Laboratories´ electron Recirculating Linear Accelerator showing agreement with theory and with alternate emittance measurements. Coherent (i.e., not strongly scattered or diffused) Cherenkov radiation from a flat, transparent, range-thin dielectric foil was split by an array of mirrors in order to view the emission profile up to a divergence angle of 70°. The mirrors were imaged by a distant telescope attached to an intensified, 2 ns video framing camera. The relative intensity profiles of the multiple images were unfolded using the properties of classical Cherenkov emission and geometric optics to obtain directly, without precise knowledge of other beam parameters, the transverse velocity distribution in the viewing plane. In our case the rms emittance was directly proportional to the product of the beam diameter and the transverse velocity spread. This and prior research efforts indicate applicability over a wide range of high energy beam parameters