Related papers: Low emittance electron beam generation from a lase…
We show that a short relativistic electron beam propagating in a plasma with a density gradient perpendicular to the direction of motion generates a wakefield in which a witness bunch experiences a transverse force. A density gradient…
Achieving high-quality electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators critically relies on density tailoring to control electron dynamics during injection, acceleration, and extraction. We report on the experimental observation of…
Laser wakefield acceleration can generate a femtosecond-scale broadband X-ray betatron radiation pulse from electrons accelerated by an intense laser pulse in a plasma. The micrometer-scale of the source makes wakefield betatron radiation…
Head-on collision of laser-induced plasma wakefields with differing profiles of electrostatic potential has been recently found to be an efficient mechanism for generating high-power electromagnetic emission at the second harmonic of the…
Efficient production of high-charge electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration using a mid-infrared (MIR) laser pulse is investigated by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Only a 2.5 TW (100 mJ, 40 fs) MIR laser pulse with…
We show that monoenergetic ion beams can be accelerated by moderate Mach number collisionless, electrostatic shocks propagating in a long scale-length exponentially decaying plasma profile. Strong plasma heating and density steepening…
The multi-stage method of laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) presents a promising approach for developing stable, full-optical, high-energy electron accelerators. By segmenting the acceleration process into several booster stages, each…
High laser intensities enable the production of electron-positron pairs from bright gamma rays passing through strong fields. Potentially the most promising approach for all-optical experiments in the near term uses dense but higher…
The interaction of coherent nonlinear structures (such as sub-cycle solitons, electron vortices and wake Langmuir waves) with a strong wake wave in a collisionless plasma can be exploited in order to produce ultra-short electromagnetic…
The new generation of laser facilities is expected to deliver short (10 fs - 100 fs) laser pulses with 10 - 100 PW of peak power. This opens an opportunity to study matter at extreme intensities in the laboratory and provides access to new…
Plasma Wakefield Acceleration (PWFA) provides ultrahigh acceleration gradients of 10s of GeV/m, providing a novel path towards efficient, compact, TeV-scale linear colliders and high brightness free electron lasers. Critical to the success…
The evolution of beam phase space in ionization-induced injection into plasma wakefields is studied using theory and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The injection process causes special longitudinal and transverse phase mixing leading…
The effect of laser focusing conditions on the evolution of relativistic plasma waves in laser wakefield accelerators is studied both experimentally and with particle-in-cell simulations. For short focal length ($w_0 < \lambda_p$)…
The use of structured light to control the phase velocity of the wake in laser-wakefield accelerators has generated significant interest for its ability to mitigate electron dephasing. Combining the diffraction-free properties of Bessel…
Laser-driven plasma wakefields can provide hundreds of MeV electron beam in mm-range distances potentially shrinking the dimension of the actual particle accelerators. The plasma density plays a fundamental role in the control and stability…
We investigate the extension of self-injecting laser wakefield experiments to the regime that will be accessible with the next generation of petawatt class ultra-short pulse laser systems. Using linear scalings, current experimental trends…
Relativistic electrons are easily generated by self-injection when an intense laser drives a wakefield in a plasma, giving rise to wide electron energy distributions. Several mechanisms involving additional laser beams or different gas…
Using a periodic electron beam bunch train to resonantly excite plasma wakefields in the quasi-nonlinear (QNL) regime has distinct advantages over employing a single, higher charge bunch. Resonant excitation in the QNL regime can produce…
We show that laser wakefield electron accelerators in meter-scale, low density hydrodynamic plasma waveguides operate in a new nonlinear propagation regime where sustained beating of lowest order modes of the ponderomotively modified…
In plasma-based acceleration, an ultra-relativistic particle bunch$\unicode{x2014}$or an intense laser beam$\unicode{x2014}$is used to expel electrons from its propagation path, forming a wake that is devoid of electrons. The ions, being…