Direct measurement of sub-10 fs relativistic electron beams with ultralow emittance

Ultralow emittance ($\leq20$ nm, normalized) electron beams with $10^5$ electrons per bunch are obtained by tightly focusing an ultrafast ($\sim$ 100 fs) laser pulse on the cathode of a 1.6 cell radiofrequency photoinjector. Taking advantage of the small initial longitudinal emittance, a downstream velocity bunching cavity is used to compress the beam to $<10$ fs rms bunch length. The measurement is performed using a thick high voltage deflecting cavity which is shown to be well-suited to measure ultrashort durations of bunching beams, provided that the beam reaches a ballistic longitudinal focus at the cavity center.