Related papers: Terahertz-optical intensity grating for creating h…
This dissertation explores the interaction between high-intensity lasers and plasmas to accelerate electrons and produce radiation via experimental and computational efforts. The laser pulses used in this dissertation have ultrashort…
A method is proposed to generate low emittance electron bunches from two color laser pulses in a laser-plasma accelerator. A two-region gas structure is used, containing a short region of a high-Z gas (e.g., krypton) for ionization…
The plasma photocathode has previously been proposed as a source of ultra-high-brightness electron bunches within plasma accelerators. Here, the scheme is extended by using a radially-polarized ionizing laser pulse to generate high-charge,…
Electron bunches with charge densities $\rho$ of the order of $10^2$ to $10^3$ [nC/cm$^3$], energies between $20.$ and $100.$ [MeV], peak current $>100$ [A], bunch lengths between 0.3 and 1.8 [cm], and bunch charge of 2.0 to $20.$ [nC] are…
The generation of stable trains of ultra-short (fs-ps), terahertz (THz)-frequency radiation pulses, with large instantaneous intensities, is an underpinning requirement for the investigation of light-matter interactions, for metrology and…
Ultra-high intensity femtosecond lasers at focus are now routinely used for relativistic motion of charged particles with peak intensities over 10^18W/cm^2. Such high-field experiments are very sensitive to the value of the peak intensity.…
We present a study of direct laser driven electron acceleration and scaling of attosecond bunch compression in unbound vacuum. Simple analytical expressions and detailed three-dimensional numerical calculations including space charge reveal…
Using high-resolution, two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate numerically the mechanisms of terahertz (THz) emissions in submicron-thick carbon solid foils driven by ultraintense ($\sim 10^{20}\,\rm W\,cm^{-2}$),…
We theoretically study the generation of terahertz (THz) radiation by two-color filamentation of ultrashort laser pulses with different wavelengths. We consider wavelengths in the range from 0.6 to 10.6 $\mu$m, thus covering the whole range…
The perturbative approach for describing the underdense plasma--ultrarelativistic electron bunch system is developed, using the ratio $\frac{n_0}{n_b}$ as a small parameter ($n_b$--bunch,$n_0$--plasma electron densities). Focusing of the…
The recent remark by G. Mourou and T. Tajima (Science 331, 41 (2011)) on the intensity of the driver laser pulse and the duration of the created pulse that higher driver beam intensities are needed to reach shorter pulses of radiation…
We report on the stable and continuous operation of a kilohertz laser-plasma accelerator. Electron bunches with 2.6 pC charge and 2.5 MeV peak energy were generated via injection and trapping in a downward plasma density ramp. This density…
Using plasma mirror injection we demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that a circularly polarized helical laser pulse can accelerate highly collimated dense bunches of electrons to several hundred MeV using currently available…
We experimentally demonstrate the production of narrow-band ($\delta f/f \simeq20$% at $f\simeq 0.5$ THz) THz transition radiation with tunable frequency over [0.37, 0.86] THz. The radiation is produced as a train of sub-picosecond…
Quasi-phase matched direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons can be realized with guided, radially polarized laser pulses in density-modulated plasma waveguides. A 3-D particle-in-cell model has been developed to describe the…
We describe a simple technique to passively bunch non-ultrarelativistics ($\lesssim 10$~MeV) electron bunches produced in conventional photoinjectors. The scheme employs a dielectric-lined waveguide located downstream of the electron source…
High-repetition-rate sources of bright electron bunches have a wide range of applications. They can directly be employed as probes in electron-scattering setups, or serve as a backbone for the generation of radiation over a broad range of…
Ultrashort and ultracold electron bunches created by near-threshold femtosecond photoionization of a laser-cooled gas hold great promise for single-shot ultrafast diffraction experiments. In previous publications the transverse beam quality…
Intense femtosecond laser pulses interacting with solids can drive electrons to relativistic energies, enabling miniaturized particle accelerators and bright extreme-ultraviolet light sources. In-situ space-time control of these electrons…
A detection scheme for characterizing high-energy $\gamma$-ray pulses down to the zeptosecond timescale is proposed. In contrast to existing attosecond metrology techniques, our method is not limited by atomic shell physics and therefore…