Laser wake-field acceleration in pre-formed plasma channel created by pre-pulse pedestal of terawatt laser pulse
- Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013 (India)
The role of nanosecond duration pre-pulse pedestal (Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) pre-pulse) in the propagation of 45 fs, 4 TW Ti:Sapphire laser pulse through a helium gas jet target has been investigated. We observed that the pre-pulse pedestal of about 1 ns duration and intensity 3 x 10{sup 12} W/cm{sup 2} creates pre-formed plasma with optical guiding channel like structure in the gas-jet at density around 3 x 10{sup 19} cm{sup -3}. Guiding of the 45 fs laser pulse (I{sub L} = 3 x 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}) in the pre-formed plasma channel, over a distance much longer than the Rayleigh length was also observed. The guiding of the laser pulse resulted in the generation of high energy electron beam by laser wake-field acceleration of self-injected electrons. The accelerated electron beam was quasi-monoenergetic with peak energy up to 50 MeV, low divergence in the range of 3-6 mrad, and bunch charge up to 100 pC.
- OSTI ID:
- 22043518
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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