Staging of laser-plasma accelerators

Steinke, S.; Tilborg, J. van; Benedetti, C.; Geddes, C. G. R.; Daniëls, J.; Swanson, K. K.; Gonsalves, A. J.; Nakamura, Kei; Shaw, Brian; Schroeder, C. B.; Esarey, E.; Leemans, Wim

doi:10.1063/1.4948280

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The best centered beam (top) had energy 1.6 GeV, charge 38 pC, divergence 1 mrad FWHM, and energy spread less than 2 % (resolution limited). Beams with such low energy spread are ideal for staged acceleration experiments, where low energy spread is required for high efficiency transport and capture in the second stage [44].…”

Section: Controlling Electron Injectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser-heated capillary discharge plasma waveguides for electron acceleration to 8 GeV

et al. 2020

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A plasma channel created by the combination of a capillary discharge and inverse Bremsstrahlung laser heating enabled the generation of electron bunches with energy up to 7.8 GeV in a laser-driven plasma accelerator. The capillary discharge created an initial plasma channel and was used to tune the plasma temperature, which optimized laser heating. Although optimized colder initial plasma temperatures reduced the ionization degree, subsequent ionization from the heater pulse created a fully ionized plasma on-axis. The heater pulse duration was chosen to be longer than the hydrodynamic timescale of ≈ 1 ns, such that later temporal slices were more efficiently guided by the channel created by the front of the pulse. Simulations are presented that show this thermal self-guiding of the heater pulse enabled channel formation over 20 cm. The post-heated channel had lower on-axis density and increased focusing strength compared to relying on the discharge alone, which allowed for guiding of relativistically intense laser pulses with peak power of 0.85 PW and wakefield acceleration over 15 diffraction lengths. Electrons were injected into the wake in multiple buckets and times, leading to several electron bunches with different peak energies. To create single electron bunches with low energy spread, experiments using localized ionization injection inside a capillary discharge waveguide were performed. A single injected bunch with energy 1.6 GeV, charge 38 pC, divergence 1 mrad, and relative energy spread below 2 percent full width half maximum was produced in a 3.3 cm-long capillary discharge waveguide. This development shows promise for mitigation of energy spread and future high-efficiency staged acceleration experiments.

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Section: Controlling Electron Injectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser-heated capillary discharge plasma waveguides for electron acceleration to 8 GeV

et al. 2020

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“…INF&RNO includes nonlinear laser evolution (e.g., relativistic self-focusing, ionization defocusing) and was used to simulate the ionizing laser's propagation through the neutral gas target and resulting blueshifting. This simulation code has been validated by extensive comparison with experiments [20][21][22][23][24] and is widely used to model the laser-plasma interaction at BELLA. The propagation of an intense laser through an ionizing target is simulated for a range of temporal profiles, resulting in a map of spectral blueshifting as a function of diffraction grating spacing.…”

Section: Numerical Simulation Of Experimental Setup and Blueshiftingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of the spectral phase of an intense laser at focus via ionization blueshift

et al. 2016

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An in-situ diagnostic for verifying the spectral phase of an intense laser pulse at focus is presented. This diagnostic relies on measuring the effect of optical compression on ionization-induced blueshifting of the laser spectrum. Experimental results from the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA), a laser source rigorously characterized by conventional techniques, are presented and compared with simulations to illustrate the utility of this technique. These simulations show distinguishable effects from second, third, and fourth order spectral phase.

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“…Advanced acceleration techniques are being pursued via different approaches, aiming at compact, more affordable systems to drive secondary radiation sources [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] or even future particle colliders [11][12][13]. In this context, laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) of electrons offers a very promising path, with experiments showing further increase of maximum energy, now approaching 8 GeV [14], including staging exploration [15][16][17][18][19] and high repetition rate operation at the lower energy end [20]. In view of the construction of the first user facility based on plasma acceleration, effort is now directed toward the demonstration of stable operation of a GeV scale electron beam at high specification, as those needed for an x-ray free electron laser (FEL) in the EuPRAXIA project [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High quality electron bunches for a multistage GeV accelerator with resonant multipulse ionization injection

Tomassini¹,

Terzani²,

Labate

et al. 2019

Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams

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Laser wakefield acceleration of GeV electrons is becoming a mature technique, so that a reliable accelerator delivering stable beams to users communities can now be considered. In such a context, two plasma stages, one injector and one booster stage, offer a flexible solution for optimization. For the injector we consider here the resonant multipulse ionization injection (ReMPI) that can be optimized to generate electron bunches with high enough quality to be efficiently transported to the second stage. In order to better control the beam-loading effect and optimize the beam manipulation after the plasma downramp, a quasiround beam is preferable. In this respect, we present analytical and particle-in-cell results concerning the tunnel-ionization process in presence of two, orthogonally polarized, laser pulses with different wavelengths. We also show, by means of hybrid fluid/PIC numerical simulations, that a stable working point with the ReMPI injector exists at 32 pC, 4 kA peak current, with mean energy of 150 MeV, energy spread of 1.65% rms, normalized emittance ϵ n ¼ 0.23 μm and divergence of 0.6 mrad. The scheme relies on a 150 TW Ti:Sa laser modified to achieve a four-pulses driver train and a third harmonics ionization pulse.

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Staging of laser-plasma accelerators

Cited by 21 publications

References 33 publications

Laser-heated capillary discharge plasma waveguides for electron acceleration to 8 GeV

Laser-heated capillary discharge plasma waveguides for electron acceleration to 8 GeV

Characterization of the spectral phase of an intense laser at focus via ionization blueshift

High quality electron bunches for a multistage GeV accelerator with resonant multipulse ionization injection

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