Improvements to laser wakefield accelerated electron beam stability, divergence, and energy spread using three-dimensional printed two-stage gas cell targets

Journal Article · Mon Apr 28 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4874981· OSTI ID:22267718

Vargas, M.; Schumaker, W.; He, Z. -H.; Zhao, Z.; Behm, K.; Chvykov, V.; Hou, B.; Krushelnick, K.; Maksimchuk, A.; Yanovsky, V.; Thomas, A. G. R., ^[1]

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1. Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States)

High intensity, short pulse lasers can be used to accelerate electrons to ultra-relativistic energies via laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) [T. Tajima and J. M. Dawson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 267 (1979)]. Recently, it was shown that separating the injection and acceleration processes into two distinct stages could prove beneficial in obtaining stable, high energy electron beams [Gonsalves et al., Nat. Phys. 7, 862 (2011); Liu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 035001 (2011); Pollock et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 045001 (2011)]. Here, we use a stereolithography based 3D printer to produce two-stage gas targets for LWFA experiments on the HERCULES laser system at the University of Michigan. We demonstrate substantial improvements to the divergence, pointing stability, and energy spread of a laser wakefield accelerated electron beam compared with a single-stage gas cell or gas jet target.

• OSTI ID: 22267718
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 17; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
LASERS
PULSES
RELATIVISTIC RANGE