Measuring longitudinal distribution and bunch length of femtosecond bunches with RF zero-phasing method

Recently there has been increasing interest in applications of very short electron bunches. Accurately measuring bunch length and profiles becomes essential for characterizing, commissioning, and operating such short bunch machines. The RF zero-phasing method is the only technique that is able to measure bunch length and longitudinal density distribution in the femtosecond regime. In this paper, analytical formulas for calculating longitudinal profile and bunch length are given. Using a such technique, bunch lengths as short as 84 fs rms have been measured