Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The basic principles and design of radiation sources (transition radiation, Cerenkov radiation, radiation from periodic structures, etc.) and radiation-based diagnostics will be discussed, with emphasis on radiation from ultra-short electron bunches. Ultra-short electron bunches have the potential to produce high peak flux radiation sources that cover wavelength regimes where sources are currently not widely available (coherent THz/IR) as well as ultrashort X-ray pulses (3-100 fs). While radiation from the electron bunch contains the full signature of the electron beam and/or medium it has travelled through, the deconvolution of a single property of interest can be difficult due to a large number of contributing properties. The experimental implementation of novel solutions to this problem will be described for beams from 30 MeV to 30 GeV, including fluctuational interferometry, source imaging, phase matched cone angles and laser-based techniques, which utilize optical transition radiation, wiggler and Cerenkov radiation, and Thomson scattering. These novel diagnostic methods have the potential to resolve fs bunch durations, slice emittance on fs scales, etc. The advantages and novel features of these techniques will be discussed.