Related papers: Laser-driven high-quality positron sources as poss…
The development of compact accelerator facilities providing high-brightness beams is one of the most challenging tasks in field of next-generation compact and cost affordable particle accelerators, to be used in many fields for industrial,…
Recent studies have demonstrated the possibility of accelerating electrons to MeV energies in ambient air using tightly focused laser configurations. In this article, we explore possible strategies to control and optimize the resulting…
Injection of well-defined, high-quality electron populations into plasma waves is a key challenge of plasma wakefield accelerators. Here, we report on the first experimental demonstration of plasma density downramp injection in an…
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…
Metallic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can provide ultra-dense, homogeneous plasma capable of sustaining resonant plasma waves-known as plasmons-with ultra-high field amplitudes. These waves can be efficiently driven by either high-intensity…
The cost, size and availability of electron accelerators is dominated by the achievable accelerating gradient. Conventional high-brightness radio-frequency (RF) accelerating structures operate with 30-50 MeV/m gradients. Electron…
Ultra-low emittance (tens of nm) beams can be generated in a plasma accelerator using ionization injection of electrons into a wakefield. An all-optical method of beam generation uses two laser pulses of different colors. A long-wavelength…
Propagation distances of intense laser pulses and high-charge electron beams through the plasma are, respectively, limited by diffraction and self-deceleration. This imposes severe constraints on the performance of the two major advanced…
We propose a novel positron beam loading regime in a hollow plasma channel that can efficiently accelerate $e^+$ beam with high gradient and narrow energy spread. In this regime, the $e^+$ beam coincides with the drive $e^-$ beam in time…
Fundamental questions on the nature of matter and energy have found answers thanks to the use of particle accelerators. Societal applications, such as cancer treatment or cancer imaging, illustrate the impact of accelerators in our current…
Laser plasma interaction with micro-engineered targets at relativistic intensities has been greatly promoted by recent progress in the high contrast lasers and the manufacture of advanced micro- and nano-structures. This opens new…
High-intensity X-ray sources are invaluable tools, enabling experiments at the forefront of our understanding of materials science, chemistry, biology, and physics. Laser-plasma electron accelerators are sources of high-intensity X-rays, as…
The electron and positron acceleration in the first cycle of a laser-driven wakefield is investigated. Separatrices between different types of the particle motion (confined, reflected by the wakefield or ponderomotive potential and…
We experimentally demonstrate a notably enhanced acceleration of protons to high energy by relatively modest ultrashort laser pulses and structured dynamical plasma targets. Realized by special deposition of snow targets on sapphire…
Accelerating particles to relativistic energies over very short distances using lasers has been a long standing goal in physics. Among the various schemes proposed for electrons, vacuum laser acceleration has attracted considerable interest…
We investigate by particle-in-cell simulations in two and three dimensions the laser-plasma interaction and the proton acceleration in multilayer targets where a low density "near-critical" layer of a few micron thickness is added on the…
CO2 laser-driven electron acceleration is demonstrated with particle-in-cell simulation in low-density plasma. An intense CO2 laser pulse with long wavelength excites wakefield. The bubble behind it has a broad space to sustain a large…
Laser Plasma Accelerators (LPA) can sustain GeV/m accelerating fields offering outstanding new possibilities for compact applications. Despite the impressive recent developments, the LPA beam quality is still significantly lower than in the…
An enhanced ionization injection scheme using a tightly focused laser pulse with intensity near the ionization potential to trigger the injection process in a mismatched pre-plasma channel has been proposed and examined via…
The interaction of ultra-intense laser pulses with an underdense plasma is used in laser-plasma acceleration to create compact sources of ultrashort pulses of relativistic electrons and X-rays. The accelerating structure is a plasma wave,…