Direct observation of fine-scale energy banding in echo-enabled harmonic generation

Abstract

We describe the experimental observation of highly nonlinear energy striations generated by two lasers in a relativistic electron beam in an echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG) setup. The rich energy banding structure results from strong dispersion of the sinusoidally modulated beam, and measurements of the banding spectrum enable benchmarking, optimization, and characterization of the concomitant EEHG process. Results are found to be in good agreement with theory, and suggest that the presented technique can facilitate the practical implementation of EEHG to generate intense, fully coherent light in future advanced accelerator-based light sources. © Published by the American Physical Society.