Simulation of the transition radiation transport through an optic system

Optical Transition Radiation (OTR) screens are widely used for beam profile measurements. The radiation is emitted when a charged particle beam crosses the boundary between two media with different optical properties. The main advantages of OTR are the instantaneous emission process allowing fast single shot measurements (i.e. bunch by bunch measurements in a multi bunch machine), and the good linearity with the beam charge (if coherent effects can be neglected). Furthermore, OTR angular distribution strongly depends on beam energy. Since OTR screens are typically placed in several positions along the Linac to monitor beam envelope, one may perform a distributed energy measurement along the machine: this will be useful, for instance, during the commissioning phase of a machine. This paper deals with the studies of an algorithm to optimize the generation and the transport of the transition radiation through an optic system using the simulation tool Zemax. The algorithm, in combination with a particle tracking code (i.e. Elegant), will allow to simulate the radiation generated by a beam and, so, to take into account beam divergence and energy spread or chromatic effects in the optic system.