Achromatic reflectron compressor design for bright pulses in femtosecond electron diffraction

We have designed a femtosecond electron gun suitable for ultrafast electron diffraction experiments, operating in the 30-100 kV regime. The concept is based on recompression of chirped expanding electron pulses emitted from a direct current photogun using a novel dispersion-corrected reflectron concept. We show, using detailed numerical simulations, that our design is capable of producing electron pulses containing 200 000 electrons with a full width at half maximum pulse duration of 130 fs, a root mean squared (rms) pulse radius of 140 mu m, and transverse coherence length of 1.5 nm at 100 kV. Our analysis includes the bunch properties at the sample, as well as interactions of the main pulse of high charge density with diffracted electrons. Since our design employs only static electron optics, we believe that it will be easier to implement than concepts based on radio frequency compression. c 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3132834]