Royal Holloway, University of London, Surrey
Lasers are increasingly being employed in particle beam diagnostics. Laser-based techniques are attractive because they are essentially non-invasive to the beam under test and can not be destroyed by it. They also have the potential to be extremely fast. Uses include transverse beam profile measurement at electron machines using the Compton effect,and at proton machines using laser-ionization of H- beams. An introduction is provided to Gaussian beam propagation and how this affects the laser properties and final focus optics needed for the various applications. Recent applications and results from ongoing research projects will be reviewed, with particular emphasis on the "laser-wire" systems recently employed at the PETRA and ATF machines.
