The problems of spin-polarized free-electron beam interaction with electromagnetic wave at electron-spin resonance conditions in a magnetic field and of superradiant spin-flip radiative emission are analyzed in the framework of a comprehensive classical model. The spontaneous emission of spin-flip radiation from electron beams is very weak. We show that the detectivity of electron spin resonant spin-flip and combined spin-flip/cyclotron-resonance-emission radiation can be substantially enhanced by operating with ultrashort spin-polarized electron beam bunches under conditions of superradiant (coherent) emission. The proposed radiative spin-state modulation and the spin-flip radiative emission schemes can be used for control and noninvasive diagnostics of polarized electron/positron beams. Such schemes are of relevance in important scattering experiments off nucleons in nuclear physics and off magnetic targets in condensed matter physics.

• Received 28 February 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.9.060703

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