Plasma Channel Guided Laser Wakefield Accelerator PDF Download

Author: Cameron Guy Robinson Geddes
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Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Laser driven accelerators, in which particles are accelerated by the electric field of a plasma wave driven by an intense laser, have demonstrated accelerating electric fields of hundreds of GV/m. These fields are thousands of times those achievable in conventional radiofrequency (RF) accelerators, spurring interest in laser accelerators as compact next generation sources of energetic electrons and radiation. To date however, acceleration distances have been severely limited by lack of a controllable method for extending the propagation distance of the focused laser pulse. The ensuing short acceleration distance results in low energy beams with 100% electron energy spread, limiting applications. Here we demonstrate that a relativistically intense laser can be guided by a preformed plasma density channel and that the longer propagation distance can result in electron beams of percent energy spread with low emittance and increased energy, containing>109 electrons above 80 MeV. The preformed plasma channel technique forms the basis of a new class of accelerators, combining beam quality comparable to RF accelerators with the high gradients of laser accelerators to produce compact tunable high brightness electron and radiation sources.

Author: Tzeng-Chih Chiou
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Languages : en
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Laser-wakefield accelerators (LWFA) can produce electricfields of order 10-100 GV/m suitable for acceleration of electrons torelativistic energies. The wakefields are excited by a relativisticallyintense laser pulse propagating through a plasma and have a phasevelocity determined by the group velocity of the light pulse. Twoimportant effects that can limit the acceleration distanceand hence thenet energy gain obtained by an electron are diffraction of the drivelaser pulse and particle-wake dephasing. Diffraction of a focusedultra-short laser pulse can be overcome by using preformed plasmachannels. The dephasing limit can be increased by operating at a lowerplasma density, since this results in an increase in the laser groupvelocity. Here we present detailed results on the generation of GeV-classelectron beams using an intense femtosecond laser beamand a 3.3 cm longpreformed discharge-based plasma channel [W.P. Leemans et al., NaturePhysics 2, 696-699 (2006)]. The use of a discharge-based waveguidepermitted operation at an order ofmagnitude lower density and 15 timeslonger distance than in previous experiments that relied on laserpreformed plasma channels. Laser pulses with peak power ranging from10-50 TW were guided over more than 20 Rayleigh ranges and high-qualityelectron beams with energy up to 1 GeV were obtained by channelling a 40TW peak power laser pulse. The dependence of the electron beamcharacteristics on capillary properties, plasma density, and laserparameters are discussed.

Author:
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Languages : en
Pages : 17

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An external magnetic field applied to a laser plasma is shown produce a plasma channel at densities relevant to creating GeV monoenergetic electrons through laser wakefield acceleration. Furthermore, the magnetic field also provides a pressure to help shape the channel to match the guiding conditions of an incident laser beam. Measured density channels suitable for guiding relativistic short-pulse laser beams are presented with a minimum density of 5 x 1017 cm−3 which corresponds to a linear dephasing length of several centimeters suitable for multi-GeV electron acceleration. The experimental setup at the Jupiter Laser Facility, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where a 1-ns, 150 J 1054 nm laser will produce a magnetically controlled channel to guide a

Author:
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Languages : en
Pages : 22

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A self-modulated laser wake-field accelerator configuration in which the laser pulse is optically guided by a plasma density channel is considered. Preliminary experiments on the generation of a plasma channel by a slow capillary discharge are described. It is shown that homogeneous channels with length L sub channel” lambda p can be produced, where lambda sub p is the plasma wavelength. Key issues are addressed, including phase detuning between the accelerated electron bunch and the wake field, beam-plasma and laser-plasma instabilities, and the effect of density variations that might occur over the length of the plasma channel. Numerical simulations, using present experimental parameters, show accelerating gradients in excess of 50 GV/m.

Author:
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Languages : en
Pages : 5

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Electron bunches produced in self-modulated laser wakefield experiments usually have a broad energy spectrum, with most electrons at low energy (1-3 MeV) and only a small fraction at high energy. We propose and investigate further acceleration of such bunches in a channel-guided resonant laser wakefield accelerator. Two-dimensional simulations with and without the effects of self-consistent beam loading are performed and compared. These results indicate that it is possible to trap about 40 percent of the injected bunch charge and accelerate this fraction to an average energy of about 50 MeV in a plasma channel of a few mn.

Author:
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Languages : en
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Guiding of relativistically intense laser beams in preformed plasma channels is discussed for development of GeV-class laser accelerators. Experiments using a channel guided laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) at LBNL have demonstrated that near mono-energetic 100 MeV-class electron beams can be produced with a 10 TW laser system. Analysis, aided by particle-in-cell simulations, as well as experiments with various plasma lengths and densities, indicate that tailoring the length of the accelerator, together with loading of the accelerating structure with beam, is the key to production of mono-energetic electron beams. Increasing the energy towards a GeV and beyond will require reducing the plasma density and design criteria are discussed for an optimized accelerator module. The current progress and future directions are summarized through comparison with conventional accelerators, highlighting the unique short term prospects for intense radiation sources based on laser-driven plasma accelerators.

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Languages : en
Pages : 10

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A summary of progress at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is given on: (1) experiments on down-ramp injection; (2) experiments on acceleration in capillary discharge plasma channels; and (3) simulations of a staged laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA). Control of trapping in a LWFA using plasma density down-ramps produced electron bunches with absolute longitudinal and transverse momentum spreads more than ten times lower than in previous experiments (0.17 and 0.02 MeV Ic FWHM, respectively) and with central momenta of 0.76 +- 0.02 MeV Ic, stable over a week of operation. Experiments were also carried out using a 40 TW laser interacting with a hydrogen-filled capillary discharge waveguide. For a 15 mm long, 200 mu m diameter capillary, quasi-monoenergetic bunches up to 300 MeV were observed. By detuning discharge delay from optimum guiding performance, self-trapping was found to be stabilized. For a 33 mm long, 300 mu m capillary, a parameter regime with high energy bunches, up to 1 Ge V, was found. In this regime, peak electron energy was correlated with the amount of trapped charge. Simulations show that bunches produced on a down-ramn and iniected into a channel-guided LWFA can produce stable beams with 0.2 MeV Ic-class momentum spread at high energies.

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Languages : en
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Plasma wakefield accelerators have been used to accelerate electron and positron particle beams with gradients that are orders of magnitude larger than those achieved in conventional accelerators. In addition to being accelerated by the plasma wakefield, the beam particles also experience strong transverse forces that may disrupt the beam quality. Hollow plasma channels have been proposed as a technique for generating accelerating fields without transverse forces. In this study, we demonstrate a method for creating an extended hollow plasma channel and measure the wakefields created by an ultrarelativistic positron beam as it propagates through the channel. The plasma channel is created by directing a high-intensity laser pulse with a spatially modulated profile into lithium vapour, which results in an annular region of ionization. A peak decelerating field of 230 MeV m-1 is inferred from changes in the beam energy spectrum, in good agreement with theory and particle-in-cell simulations.