Streak camera measurements of electron bunch length from a copper photocathode in an RF gun

Short laser pulses (sub 2 ps) of UV (/spl lambda/=266 nm) light with 200 /spl mu/J/pulse are used to produce electrons from a copper cathode in an RF gun. The electron bunch length is measured by streaking the Cerenkov radiation (/spl lambda/=530 nm) from a thin (250 /spl mu/m) fused silica etalon. Streaks for both 0/spl deg/ and 70/spl deg/ laser incidence angles with respect to the cathode normal are presented with a temporal resolution of 3.6 ps. The shortest electron bunch length measured was 9 ps.<
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