Optical control of electron phase space in plasma accelerators with incoherently stacked laser pulses
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0299 (United States)
- CEA, DAM, DIF, Arpajon F-91297 (France)
- Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-CNRS-École Polytechnique UMR 7639, Palaiseau F-91761 (France)
It is demonstrated that synthesizing an ultrahigh-bandwidth, negatively chirped laser pulse by incoherently stacking pulses of different wavelengths makes it possible to optimize the process of electron self-injection in a dense, highly dispersive plasma (n{sub 0}∼10{sup 19} cm{sup −3}). Avoiding transformation of the driving pulse into a relativistic optical shock maintains a quasi-monoenergetic electron spectrum through electron dephasing and boosts electron energy far beyond the limits suggested by existing scaling laws. In addition, evolution of the accelerating bucket in a plasma channel is shown to produce a background-free, tunable train of femtosecond-duration, 35–100 kA, time-synchronized quasi-monoenergetic electron bunches. The combination of the negative chirp and the channel permits acceleration of electrons beyond 1 GeV in a 3 mm plasma with 1.4 J of laser pulse energy, thus offering the opportunity of high-repetition-rate operation at manageable average laser power.
- OSTI ID:
- 22410416
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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