scholarly journals Low-energy-spread laser wakefield acceleration using ionization injection with a tightly focused laser in a mismatched plasma channel

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 034004 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Li ◽  
C J Zhang ◽  
Y Wan ◽  
Y P Wu ◽  
X L Xu ◽  
...  
2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 398-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. HAFZ ◽  
G. H. KIM ◽  
C. KIM ◽  
H. SUK

A relativistic electron bunch with a large charge (~2 nC ) was produced from a self-modulated laser wakefield acceleration configuration. In this experiment, an intense laser pulse with a peak power of 2 TW and a duration of 700 fs was focused in a nitrogen gas jet, and multi-MeV electrons were observed from the strong laser-plasma interaction. By passing the electrons through a small pinhole-like collimator of cone f/70, we observed a narrowing in the electron beam's energy spread. The beam clearly showed a small energy-spread behavior with a central energy of 4.8 MeV and a charge of 115 pC. The acceleration gradient was estimated to be about 20 GeV/m.


2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. W. Reitsma ◽  
R. A. Cairns ◽  
R. Bingham ◽  
D. A. Jaroszynski

2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.J.W. REITSMA ◽  
D.A. JAROSZYNSKI

The acceleration dynamics of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator is discussed, in particular the coupling of longitudinal and transverse motion. This coupling effect is important for electrons injected with a velocity below the laser pulse group velocity. It is found that the electron bunch is adiabatically focused during the acceleration and that a finite bunch width contributes to bunch lengthening and growth of energy spread. These results indicate the importance of a small emittance for the injected electron bunch.


Author(s):  
M.J van der Wiel ◽  
O.J Luiten ◽  
G.J.H Brussaard ◽  
S.B van der Geer ◽  
W.H Urbanus ◽  
...  

External injection of electron bunches into laser-driven plasma waves so far has not resulted in ‘controlled’ acceleration, i.e. production of bunches with well-defined energy spread. Recent simulations, however, predict that narrow distributions can be achieved, provided the conditions for properly trapping the injected electrons are met. Under these conditions, injected bunch lengths of one to several plasma wavelengths are acceptable. This paper first describes current efforts to demonstrate this experimentally, using state-of-the-art radio frequency technology. The expected charge accelerated, however, is still low for most applications. In the second part, the paper addresses a number of novel concepts for significant enhancement of photo-injector brightness. Simulations predict that, once these concepts are realized, external injection into a wakefield accelerator will lead to accelerated bunch specs comparable to those of recent ‘laser-into-gasjet’ experiments, without the present irreproducibility of charge and final energy of the latter.


The accelerating gradients in conventional linear accelerators are currently limited to ~100 MV/m. Plasma-based accelerators have the ability to sustain accelerating gradients which are several orders of magnitude greater than that obtained in conventional accelerators. Due to the rapid development of laser technology the laser-plasma-based accelerators are of great interest now. Over the past decade, successful experiments on laser wakefield acceleration of electrons in the plasma have confirmed the relevance of this acceleration. Evidently, the large accelerating gradients in the laser plasma accelerators allow to reduce the size and to cut the cost of accelerators. Another important advantage of the laser-plasma accelerators is that they can produce short electron bunches with high energy. The formation of electron bunches with small energy spread was demonstrated at intense laser–plasma interactions. Electron self-injection in the wake-bubble, generated by an intense laser pulse in underdense plasma, has been studied. With newly available compact laser technology one can produce 100 PW-class laser pulses with a single-cycle duration on the femtosecond timescale. With a fs intense laser one can produce a coherent X-ray pulse. Prof. T. Tajima suggested utilizing these coherent X-rays to drive the acceleration of particles. When such X-rays are injected into a crystal they interact with a metallic-density electron plasma and ideally suit for laser wakefield acceleration. In numerical simulation of authors, performed according to idea of Prof. T.Tajima, on wakefield excitation by a X-ray laser pulse in a metallic-density electron plasma the accelerating gradient of several TV/m has been obtained. It is important to form bunch with small energy spread and small size. The purpose of this paper is to show by the numerical simulation that some precursor-laser-pulse, moved before the main laser pulse, controls properties of the self-injected electron bunch and provides at certain conditions small energy spread and small size of self-injected and accelerated electron bunch.


Author(s):  
T. P. A. Ibbotson ◽  
N. Bourgeois ◽  
T. P. Rowlands-Rees ◽  
L. S. Caballero ◽  
S. I. Bajlekov ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. TZOUFRAS ◽  
C. HUANG ◽  
J. H. COOLEY ◽  
F. S. TSUNG ◽  
J. VIEIRA ◽  
...  

AbstractOptimization of laser wakefield acceleration involves understanding and control of the laser evolution in tenuous plasmas, the response of the plasma medium, and its effect on the accelerating particles. We explore these phenomena in the weakly nonlinear regime, in which the laser power is similar to the critical power for self-focusing. Using Particle-In-Cell simulations with the code QuickPIC, we demonstrate that a laser pulse can remain focused in a plasma channel for hundreds of Rayleigh lengths and efficiently accelerate a high-quality electron beam to 100GeV (25GeV) in a single stage with average gradient 3.6GV/m (7.2GV/m).


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