A viable laser driver for a user plasma accelerator

Abstract

The construction of a novel user facility employing laser-driven plasma acceleration with superior beam quality will require an industrial grade, high repetition rate petawatt laser driver which is beyond existing technology. However, with the ongoing fast development of chirped pulse amplification and high average power laser technology, options can be identified depending on the envisioned laser-plasma acceleration scheme and on the time scale for construction. Here we discuss laser requirements for the EuPRAXIA infrastructure design and identify a suitable laser concepts that is likely to fulfil such requirements with a moderate development of existing technologies.

Conceptual Design of a Laser Driver for a Plasma Accelerator User Facility

“…In the transmission geometry, the disk-shaped crystal is cooled on both faces; both the pump beams and the amplified beam cross the crystal, the cooling water flow, and the flow containment windows. This solution (proposed in a previous study [13] and analyzed in another study [6] for the Eupraxia system) offers a good performance in terms of heat extraction and allows implementation of a simpler layout from a geometrical point of view, but it presents a potential drawback because the amplified beam is potentially subjected to optical perturbations due to the turbulence of the cooling fluid.…”

“…The occurrence of parasitic lasing was carefully analyzed in the design. Details about the methodology followed for this subject can be found in previous work [6]. The choice of crystal diameter, beam size, crystal doping, and thickness result from an accurate tradeoff between longitudinal gain, energy storage, cooling considerations, and transverse lasing control and suppression.…”

“…Thermally induced birefringence [20] was not considered. Detailed results of this approach are described in previous work [6].…”

“…New systems under realization aim to even higher average power levels, such as HAPLS targeting an output power of 300 W. Nonetheless, to address user-level requirements, the average power of ultrafast lasers needs to increase by one or two orders of magnitude.The purpose of the European project EuPRAXIA [5] is to provide a conceptual design for a compact, user-oriented, plasma accelerator with superior beam quality to enable free electron laser operation in the X-ray range. User requirements for an operational facility imply a significant increase of the laser driver output parameters with respect to systems currently available or under development: pulse peak power in the petawatt range, pulse repetition rate of several tens of Hz, as well as very high beam quality and overall stability of the system parameters.A description of the architecture of the laser driver was already published in previous work [6], describing the main parameters and technical solutions. This paper complements the previous one by recalling the general lines of the system architecture and addressing some specific points that are particularly critical for the system operation at high average power levels.…”

“…A description of the architecture of the laser driver was already published in previous work [6], describing the main parameters and technical solutions. This paper complements the previous one by recalling the general lines of the system architecture and addressing some specific points that are particularly critical for the system operation at high average power levels.…”