Related papers: The FLASHForward Facility at DESY
Ionization injection in a plasma wakefield accelerator was investigated experimentally using two lithium plasma sources of different lengths. The ionization of the helium gas, used to confine the lithium, injects electrons in the wake.…
The interaction of an ultra-intense laser pulse with a near critical density target results in the formation of a plasma channel, a strong azimuthal magnetic field and moving vortices. An application of this is the generation of energetic…
We report on the first results of laser plasma wakefield acceleration driven by ultrashort mid-infrared laser pulses (\lambda= 3.9 \mu m, 100 fs, 0.25 TW), which enable near- and above-critical density interactions with moderate-density gas…
In this dissertation, a fully object-oriented, fully relativistic, multi-dimensional Particle-In-Cell code was developed and applied to answer key questions in plasma-based accelerator research. The simulations increase the understanding of…
Laser and beam driven wakefields promise orders of magnitude increases in electric field gradients for particle accelerators for future applications. Key areas to explore include the emittance properties of the generated beams and…
Plasma wakefield acceleration is a groundbreaking technique for accelerating particles, capable of sustaining gigavolt-per-meter accelerating fields. Understanding the physical mechanisms governing the recovery of plasma accelerating…
By tailoring the wavefront of the laser pulse used in a laser-wakefield accelerator, we show that the properties of the x-rays produced due to the electron beam's betatron oscillations in the plasma can be controlled. By creating a…
Plasma wakefield acceleration in the nonlinear blowout regime has been shown to provide high acceleration gradients and high energy transfer efficiency while maintaining great beam quality for electron acceleration. In contrast, research on…
Wakefield accelerators are under development in many laboratories worldwide. They bring the promise of a high accelerating gradient, orders of magnitude higher than current machines. The reduction in the overall length of the accelerators…
High-flux polarized particle beams are of critical importance for the investigation of spin-dependent processes, such as in searches of physics beyond the Standard Model, as well as for scrutinizing the structure of solids and surfaces in…
All-optical controlled injection and acceleration of electrons in a laser wakefield has recently been achieved (Faure et al, Nature v. 444 p. 737, 2006). Injection was made using a second counterpropagating laser pulse with the same…
We measure the emission of energetic electrons from the interaction between ultrashort laser pulses and a solid density plasma in the relativistic regime. We detect an electron beam that only appears with few-cycle pulses (< 10 fs) and…
Plasma wakefields offer high acceleration gradients, orders of magnitude larger than conventional RF accelerators. However, the achievable luminosity remains relatively low, typically limited by repetition rate and the charge accelerated…
We present the first demonstration of multi-GeV laser wakefield acceleration in a fully optically formed plasma waveguide, with an acceleration gradient as high as 25 GeV/m. The guide was formed via self-waveguiding of <15 J, 45 fs (<~300…
The Advanced Wakefield (AWAKE) Experiment is a proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating the acceleration of electron beams via proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. AWAKE Run 1 achieved acceleration of electron beams to 2 GeV and…
A collider based on beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration will require the drive beam to transfer 10-100s of Joules to the plasma in each stage, with a drive-to-wake energy transfer efficiency exceeding 70%. Using an all-optical plasma…
A new electron injection scheme is proposed in sub-relativistic plasma wakefield accelerators. A transverse laser ionizes a dopant gas and ponderomotively accelerates the released electrons in the direction of wake propagation. This process…
Plasmas are a compelling medium for particle acceleration owing to their natural ability to sustain electric fields that are orders of magnitude larger than those available in conventional radio-frequency accelerators. Plasmas are also…
Though wakefield acceleration in crystal channels has been previously proposed, x-ray wakefield acceleration has only recently become a realistic possibility since the invention of the single-cycled optical laser compression technique. We…
Intense electromagnetic pulses interacting with a plasma can create a wake of plasma oscillations. Electrons trapped in such oscillations can be accelerated under certain conditions to very high energies. We study the conditions for the…