Femtosecond electron pulse characterization using laser ponderomotive scattering

We demonstrate a method for the measurement of the instantaneous duration of femtosecond electron pulses using the ponderomotive force of an intense ultrashort laser pulse. An analysis procedure for the extraction of the electron pulse duration from the transient change of the transverse electron beam profile is proposed. The durations of the electron pulses generated in our setup were determined to be 410 +/- 30fs. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.