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Betatron x-ray radiation from laser-plasma accelerators driven by femtosecond and picosecond laser systems

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5020997· OSTI ID:1458731
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [1];  [1];  [8];  [9];  [6];  [5];  [1];  [7]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Univ. of Rochester, Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
  4. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
  5. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Stanford, CA (United States)
  6. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  7. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  8. Univ. de Lisboa, Lisbon (Portugal); Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Goteborg (Sweden)
  9. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Univ. de Lisboa, Lisbon (Portugal); Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
A comparative experimental study of betatron x-ray radiation from laser wakefield acceleration in the blowout and self-modulated regimes is presented. Our experiments use picosecond duration laser pulses up to 150 J (self-modulated regime) and 60 fs duration laser pulses up to 10 J (blowout regime), for plasmas with electronic densities on the order of 1019 cm–3. In the self-modulated regime, where betatron radiation has been very little studied compared to the blowout regime, electrons accelerated in the wake of the laser pulse are subject to both the longitudinal plasma and transverse laser electrical fields. As a result, their motion within the wake is relatively complex; consequently, the experimental and theoretical properties of the x-ray source based on self-modulation differ from the blowout regime of laser wakefield acceleration. In our experimental configuration, electrons accelerated up to about 250 MeV and betatron x-ray spectra with critical energies of about 10–20 keV and photon fluxes between 108 and 1010 photons/eV Sr are reported. In conclusion, our experiments open the prospect of using betatron x-ray radiation for applications, and the source is competitive with current x-ray backlighting methods on multi-kilojoule laser systems.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC02-76SF00515; AC52-07NA27344; NA0002950
OSTI ID:
1458731
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1844072
OSTI ID: 1439758
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--820666
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 25; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Numerical simulation of novel concept 4D cardiac microtomography for small rodents based on all-optical Thomson scattering X-ray sources journal June 2019
Chromatic matching in a plasma undulator journal November 2019

Figures / Tables (8)

FIG. 1(p. 2)figure FIG. 1
FIG. 2(p. 4)figure FIG. 2
FIG. 3(p. 4)figure FIG. 3
FIG. 4(p. 5)figure FIG. 4
FIG. 5(p. 5)figure FIG. 5
FIG. 6(p. 6)figure FIG. 6
FIG. 7(p. 6)figure FIG. 7
FIG. 8(p. 7)figure FIG. 8

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