The gain length of the free-electron laser (FEL) process strongly depends on the slice energy spread, slice emittance, and current of the electron bunch. At an FEL with only moderately compressed electron bunches, the slice energy spread is mainly determined by the compression process. In this regime, single-shot measurements using a transverse deflecting rf cavity enable the extraction of the longitudinal profile of the transverse emittance. At the free-electron laser FLASH at DESY, this technique was used to determine the slice properties of the electron bunch set up for seeded operation in the sFLASH experiment. Thereby, the performance of the seeded FEL process as a function of laser-electron timing can be predicted from these slice properties with the semi-analytical Ming-Xie model where only confined fractions of the electron bunch are stimulated to lase. The prediction is well in line with the FEL peak power observed during an experimental laser-electron timing scan. The power profiles of the FEL pulses were reconstructed from the longitudinal phase-space measurements of the seeded electron bunch that was measured with the rf deflector
