Quasimonoenergetic electron beams from laser wakefield acceleration in pure nitrogen

Journal Article · Mon Feb 13 00:00:00 EST 2012 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3685464· OSTI ID:22025440

Mo, M Z; Ali, A; Fedosejevs, R ^[1]; Fourmaux, S; Lassonde, P; Kieffer, J C ^[2]

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1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4 (Canada)
2. INRS-EMT, Universite du Quebec, 1650 Lionel Boulet, Varennes, Quebec J3X 1S2 (Canada)

Quasimonoenergetic electron beams with maximum energy >0.5 GeV and 2 mrad divergence have been generated in pure nitrogen gas via wakefield acceleration with 80 TW, 30 fs laser pulses. Long low energy tail features were typically observed due to continuous ionization injection. The measured peak electron energy decreased with the plasma density, agreeing with the predicted scaling for electrons. The experiments showed a threshold electron density of 3x10{sup 18}cm{sup -3} for self-trapping. Our experiments suggest that pure Nitrogen is a potential candidate gas to achieve GeV monoenergetic electrons using the ionization induced injection scheme for laser wakefield acceleration.

• OSTI ID: 22025440
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 7; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
ACCELERATION
BEAM PRODUCTION
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRON DENSITY
GEV RANGE
IONIZATION
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
NITROGEN
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA GUNS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
TRAPPING
WAKEFIELD ACCELERATORS