Stable multi-GeV electron accelerator driven by waveform-controlled PW laser pulses

Abstract

The achievable energy and the stability of accelerated electron beams have been the most critical issues in laser wakefield acceleration. As laser propagation, plasma wave formation and electron acceleration are highly nonlinear processes, the laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) is extremely sensitive to initial experimental conditions. We propose a simple and elegant waveform control method for the LWFA process to enhance the performance of a laser electron accelerator by applying a fully optical and programmable technique to control the chirp of PW laser pulses. We found sensitive dependence of energy and stability of electron beams on the spectral phase of laser pulses and obtained stable 2-GeV electron beams from a 1-cm gas cell of helium. The waveform control technique for LWFA would prompt practical applications of centimeter-scale GeV-electron accelerators to a compact radiation sources in the x-ray and γ-ray regions.

Spatio-temporal structure of a petawatt femtosecond laser beam

“…The development of such laser sources, now available or under construction in several laboratories worldwide, is motivated by two main prospects. The first is demonstrating compact particle accelerators for scientific or societal applications, with particle energies up to several GeV [4][5][6][7][8]. The second is exploring the physics of ultra-relativistic laser-matter interactions, and more particularly accessing regimes where highly nonlinear quantum electro-dynamical effects come into play, in order to perform new tests of this fundamental theory [9].…”

Very Compact Linear Colliders Comprising Seamless Multistage Laser-Plasma Accelerators

“…ðÞ , the solutions of the coupled equations are given by Eqs. (14) and (15) for γ, and the transverse position and velocity [41].…”

“…Provided the initial values of x 0 and β x0 are specified from the energy γ 0 , relative energy spread Δγ=γ 0 , and normalized emittance ε n0 of the injected beam, γ s ðÞ , xs ðÞ , and β x s ðÞare first calculated from Eqs. (14) and (30) using s Ψ ðÞ , where Ψ ¼ Ψ 0 þ ΔΨ is the phase at next step. Thus, the effects of the radiation reaction and multiple Coulomb scattering are obtained as follows:…”

“…The propagation of laser pulses in plasmas is described by refractive guiding, in which the refractive index can be modified from the linear free space value mainly by relativistic self-focusing, ponderomotive channeling, and a preformed plasma channel [10]. The self-guided LPA [11][12][13][14] relies only on intrinsic effects of relativistic laser-plasma interactions such as relativistic self-focusing and ponderomotive channeling. On the other hand, the channel-guided LPA exploits a plasma waveguide with a preformed density channel [15][16][17] or a gasfilled capillary waveguide made of metallic or dielectric materials [18].…”

Optical steering of electron beam in laser plasma accelerators

“…In LWFA, the laser pulse with PFT will excite asymmetric wakefield which will force the pulse to deviate from its initial axis and alter the way the electrons are injected and accelerated [11,17,18]. In the community, it is well known that the influence of GDD on the electron accelerating process has been studied and many groups use the algorithms to manage electron beam optimization [19,20]. However, the controlling over the pointing direction of high energy electron beams by GDD has not been reported yet.…”