Proof-of-principle experiments of laser Wakefield acceleration

Technical Report · Fri Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10158563· OSTI ID:10158563

Nakajima, K; Kawakubo, T; Nakanishi, H ^[1]

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1. National Lab. for Higher Energy Physics, Ibaraki (Japan); and others

Recently there has been a great interest in laser-plasma accelerators as possible next-generation particle accelerators because of their potential for ultra high accelerating gradients and compact size compared with conventional accelerators. It is known that the laser pulse is capable of exciting a plasma wave propagating at a phase velocity close to the velocity of light by means of beating two-frequency lasers or an ultra short laser pulse. These schemes came to be known as the Beat Wave Accelerator (BWA) for beating lasers or as the Laser Wakefield Accelerator (LWFA) for a short pulse laser. In this paper, the principle of laser wakefield particle acceleration has been tested by the Nd:glass laser system providing a short pulse with a power of 10 TW and a duration of 1 ps. Electrons accelerated up to 18 MeV/c have been observed by injecting 1 MeV/c electrons emitted from a solid target by an intense laser impact. The accelerating field gradient of 30 GeV/m is inferred.

• Research Organization: Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States). Inst. for Fusion Studies
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States); Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (Japan)
• DOE Contract Number: FG05-80ET53088
• OSTI ID: 10158563
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/53088--659; IFSR--659; ON: DE94012767; BR: 39KG01000/AT0520240
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
430100
BEAT WAVE ACCELERATORS
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, AND OPERATION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
NEODYMIUM LASERS
WAKEFIELD ACCELERATORS