Probing Transverse Coherence with the Heterodyne Speckle Approach: Overview and Perspectives

The properties of spatial coherence of radiation emitted by relativistic electrons is far from being trivial. Assessing the coherence of high-brilliance X-ray sources (3rd generation synchrotrons or free electron lasers) is of crucial importance for machine diagnostics, as well as in planning experiments exploiting coherent techniques. The Heterodyne Speckles method, firstly described by Alaimo et al. (2009), is a valuable alternative to standard methods (e.g. Young's interferometer) which 1) provides a direct measure of transverse coherence without any a-priori assumption, 2) provides a full 2D map of coherence, 3) is capable of one shot, time-resolved measures, 4) is scalable over a wide range of wavelengths. It relies upon the statistical analysis of radiation scattered by spherical particles randomly distributed and suspended in a fluid. Here we give an overview of this method, from the theoretical framework to the operating conditions to be adopted in order to obtain coherence measurements in several conditions.