Plasma-photonic spatiotemporal synchronization of relativistic electron and laser beams
Abstract
Modern particle accelerators and their applications increasingly rely on precisely coordinated interactions of intense charged particle and laser beams. Femtosecond-scale synchronization alongside micrometre-scale spatial precision are essential e.g. for pump-probe experiments, seeding and diagnostics of advanced light sources and for plasma-based accelerators. State-of-the-art temporal or spatial diagnostics typically operate with low-intensity beams to avoid material damage at high intensity. As such, we present a plasma-based approach, which allows measurement of both temporal and spatial overlap of high-intensity beams directly at their interaction point. It exploits amplification of plasma afterglow arising from the passage of an electron beam through a laser-generated plasma filament. The corresponding photon yield carries the spatiotemporal signature of the femtosecond-scale dynamics, yet can be observed as a visible light signal on microsecond-millimetre scales.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1908.09263,
title = {Plasma-photonic spatiotemporal synchronization of relativistic electron and laser beams},
author = {Paul Scherkl and Alexander Knetsch and Thomas Heinemann and Andrew Sutherland and Ahmad Fahim Habib and Oliver Karger and Daniel Ullmann and Andrew Beaton and Gavin Kirwan and Grace Manahan and Yunfeng Xi and Aihua Deng and Michael Dennis Litos and Brendan D. OShea and Selina Z. Green and Christine I. Clarke and Gerard Andonian and Ralph Assmann and Dino A. Jaroszynski and David L. Bruhwiler and Jonathan Smith and John R. Cary and Mark J. Hogan and Vitaly Yakimenko and James B. Rosenzweig and Bernhard Hidding},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.09263},
year = {2019}
}