Smith-Purcell radiation on a surface wave

Abstract

We consider the radiation from an electron in flight over a surface wave of an arbitrary profile excited in a plane interface. For an electron bunch the conditions are specified under which the overall radiation essentially exceeds the incoherent part. It is shown that the radiation from the bunch with asymmetric density distribution of electrons in the longitudinal direction is partially coherent for waves with wavelengths much shorter than the characteristic longitudinal size of the bunch.