Laser-driven electron beam acceleration and future application to compact light sources

Journal Article · Sat Jul 25 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3204521· OSTI ID:21344309

Hafz, N; Jeong, T M; Lee, S K; Pae, K H; Sung, J H; Choi, I W; Yu, T J; Lee, J ^[1]; Jeong, Y U ^[2]

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1. Center for Femto-Atto Science and Technology, Advanced Photonics Research Institute Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 500-712 (Korea, Republic of)
2. Quantum Optics Center, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon 305-353 (Korea, Republic of)

Laser-driven plasma accelerators are gaining much attention by the advanced accelerator community due to the potential these accelerators hold in miniaturizing future high-energy and medium-energy machines. In the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA), the ponderomotive force of an ultrashort high intensity laser pulse excites a longitudinal plasma wave or bubble. Due to huge charge separation, electric fields created in the plasma bubble can be several orders of magnitude higher than those available in conventional microwave and RF-based accelerator facilities which are limited (up to approx100 MV/m) by material breakdown. Therefore, if an electron bunch is injected into the bubble in phase with its field, it will gain relativistic energies within an extremely short distance. Here, in the LWFA we show the generation of high-quality and high-energy electron beams up to the GeV-class within a few millimeters of gas-jet plasmas irradiated by tens of terawatt ultrashort laser pulses. Thus we realize approximately four orders of magnitude acceleration gradients higher than available by conventional technology. As a practical application of the stable high-energy electron beam generation, we are planning on injecting the electron beams into a few-meters long conventional undulator in order to realize compact X-ray synchrotron (immediate) and FEL (future) light sources. Stable laser-driven electron beam and radiation devices will surely open a new era in science, medicine and technology and will benefit a larger number of users in those fields.

• OSTI ID: 21344309
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1153, Issue 1; Conference: 2. international symposium on laser-driven relativistic plasmas applied to science, industry and medicine, Kyoto (Japan), 19-23 Jan 2009; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3204521; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
ABLATION
ACCELERATION
BEAM PRODUCTION
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
GEV RANGE
LASERS
PLASMA
PLASMA GUNS
PLASMA WAVES
PONDEROMOTIVE FORCE
PULSES
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
RF SYSTEMS
SYNCHROCYCLOTRONS
SYNCHROTRONS
TERAWATT POWER RANGE
WAKEFIELD ACCELERATORS
WIGGLER MAGNETS
ACCELERATORS
BEAMS
CYCLIC ACCELERATORS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
EQUIPMENT
FERMIONS
LEPTON BEAMS
LEPTONS
LINEAR ACCELERATORS
MAGNETS
PARTICLE BEAMS
POWER RANGE