Optical Diagnostics within La3net*

The Laser Applications at Accelerators network (LA3NET) is a pan-European project that has received 4.6 M€ of funding from the European Union's 7th Framework Programme. It closely links research into lasers and accelerators to develop advanced particle sources, new accelerating schemes, and in particular beyond state-ofthe-art beam diagnostics. This contribution summarizes the research achievements in optical beam diagnostics of this 4 year research and training initiative. It presents the achievable resolution of a laser-based velocimeter to measure the velocity of neutral particle beams, results from the measurement of bunch shape using electrooptical crystals with tens of fs resolution, experimental data using a laser wire scanner, and discusses the resolution limits in energy measurements using Compton backscattering at a synchrotron light source. Finally, it also provides a summary of events that have been organized by the LA3NET consortium.