Fast Imaging of Time-dependent Distributions of Intense Beams

Longitudinal perturbations can be generated in the space-charge dominated regimes in which most beams of interest are born. To study the modification of transverse beam distributions by longitudinal beam dynamics, we have conducted experimental studies using low energy electron beams by taking time resolved images of a beam with longitudinal density perturbations. Two different diagnostics are used: optical transition radiation (OTR) produced from an intercepting silicon based aluminum screen and a fast (< 5 ns decay time) phosphor screen. It is found that the beam is significantly affected by the perturbation. However the OTR signal is very weak and requires over 45 minutes of frame integration. The fast phosphor screen has much better sensitivity (~1000 times enhancement). In this paper, we also report on the time resolved measurement of a parabolic beam, showing interesting correlations between transverse and longitudinal distributions of the beam.