摘要： Coherent emission from a microbunched electron beam is the driving force behind the revolution in light sources, enabling x-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) to emit pulses 9 orders of magnitude brighter than previous sources. Microbunches form perpendicular to the electron travel direction, and the conventional understanding is that they shear rather than rotate in response to a transverse kick, locking FEL facilities into a single-user operating mode. In this paper, we show that microbunches rotate toward the new direction of travel if the electron beam is kicked and defocused. We provide evidence that microbunch rotation explains the unexpectedly large amount of off-axis radiation observed during experiments at the Linac Coherent Light Source. We demonstrate that LCLS can be multiplexed into at least three separate beams using this principle. Finally, we propose using a magnetic triplet to rotate microbunches through significantly larger angles without microbunch degradation. This new understanding of microbunch dynamics can lead to significantly improved multiplexing at FEL facilities, microbunch preservation through a bend, and x-ray pulses with a pulse-front tilt.