Laser wakefield acceleration at reduced density in the self-guided regime

Journal Article · Sat May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3323083· OSTI ID:21371219

Ralph, J E; Albert, F; Pollock, B B; Shaw, J L; Till, A; Palastro, J P; Glenzer, S H; Froula, D H ^[1]; Clayton, C E; Pak, A E; Marsh, K A; Lu, W; Mori, W B; Joshi, C ^[2]; Martins, S F; Silva, L O ^[3]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)
2. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)
3. GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon (Portugal)

Experiments conducted using a 200 TW 60 fs laser have demonstrated up to 720 MeV electrons in the self-guided laser wakefield regime using pure helium gas jet targets. The self-trapped charge in a helium plasma was shown to fall off with decreasing electron density with a threshold at 2.5x10{sup 18} cm{sup -3}, below which no charge is measured above 100 MeV. Self-guiding, however, is shown to continue below this density limitation over distances of 14 mm with an exit spot size of 25 {mu}m. Simulations show that injection of electrons at these densities can be assisted through ionization induced trapping in a mix of helium with 3% oxygen.

• OSTI ID: 21371219
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 17; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATORS
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
FERMIONS
FLUIDS
GASES
HELIUM
IONIZATION
LASERS
LEPTONS
LINEAR ACCELERATORS
NONMETALS
PLASMA
PLASMA SIMULATION
RARE GASES
SIMULATION
TRAPPING
WAKEFIELD ACCELERATORS