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| URL | https://doi.org/10.18429/JACoW-IPAC2026-THO2M02 |
|---|---|
| Title | Results of the first interferometric measurements of undulator radiation from single electrons |
| Authors |
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| Abstract | The aims of the CLARA experiment at the Fermilab Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) were to directly measure the coherence length of undulator radiation emitted by a single electron and to test whether the radiation is in a pure classical Glauber coherent state or in a quantum mixture of coherent and Fock states. We used a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) to study visible radiation generated by 150-MeV electrons circulating in the ring. The relative delay between the two arms of the MZI was adjusted by varying the length of one of them with a resolution of 10 nm. The intensity of the circulating beam spanned several orders of magnitude, down to single electrons. A pair of single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) was placed at the output of the MZI arms to detect photocounts with high efficiency and timing resolution. We describe the observed interference patterns and photocount rates as a function of interferometer delay. The arrival time distributions of photocounts of undulator radiation, lasers and chaotic light are compared. The implications for the quantum-optical nature of the radiation are discussed. To our knowledge, these are the first direct measurements of this kind. |
| Paper | download: THO2M02.pdf |
| Cite | BibTeX, LaTeX, Text/Word, RIS, EndNote |
| Conference | 17th International Particle Accelerator Conference |
| Series | |
| Location | Deauville, France |
| Date | 17-22 May 2026 |
| Publisher | JACoW Publishing, Geneva, Switzerland |
| Editorial Board | Editorial Board |
| Online ISBN | 978-3-95450-252-3 |
| Online ISSN | 2673-5350 |
| Received | 13 May 2026 |
| Revised | 18 May 2026 |
| Accepted | 22 May 2026 |
| Issued | 22 May 2026 |
| DOI | 10.18429/JACoW-IPAC2026-THO2M02 |
| Pages | 3391-3396 |
| Copyright | Published by JACoW Publishing under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s), the published article's title, publisher, and DOI. |