LASER WAKEFIELD ACCELERATION DRIVEN BY ATF CO2 LASER (STELLA-LW).

Conference · Sat Sep 25 04:00:00 EDT 2004

OSTI ID:15009933

KIMURA, W D; ANDREEV, N E; BABZIEN, M; BEN-ZVI, I

A new experiment has begun that builds upon the successful Staged Electron Laser Acceleration (STELLA) experiment, which demonstrated high-trapping efficiency and narrow energy spread in a staged laser-driven accelerator. STELLA was based upon inverse free electron lasers (IFEL); the new experiment, called STELLA-LW, is based upon laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). The first phase of STELLA-LW will be to demonstrate LWFA in a capillary discharge driven by the Brookhaven National Laboratory Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) terawatt CO{sub 2} laser beam. This will be the first time LWFA is conducted at 10.6-{micro}m laser wavelength. It will also be operating in an interesting pseudo-resonant regime where the laser pulse length is too long for resonant LWFA, but too short for self-modulated LWFA. Analysis has shown that in pseudo-resonant LWFA, pulse-steepening effects occur on the laser pulse that permits generation of strong wakefields. Various approaches are being explored for the capillary discharge including polypropylene and hydrogen-filled capillaries. Planned diagnostics for the experiment include coherent Thomson scattering (CTS) to detect the wakefield generation. This will be one of the first times CTS is used on a capillary discharge.

• Research Organization: BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/OFFICE OF SCIENCE (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-98CH10886
• OSTI ID: 15009933
• Report Number(s): BNL--73208-2004-CP; 1501020
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
ACCELERATION
ACCELERATORS
BNL
CAPILLARIES
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRONS
FREE ELECTRON LASERS
LASERS
POLYPROPYLENE
THOMSON SCATTERING