Related papers: First Electron Acceleration in a Tunable-Velocity …
Laser wakefield accelerators rely on the extremely high electric fields of nonlinear plasma waves to trap and accelerate electrons to relativistic energies over short distances. When driven strongly enough, plasma waves break, trapping a…
Laser-wakefield acceleration is a promising technique for the next generation of ultra-compact, high-energy particle accelerators. However, for a meaningful use of laser-driven particle beams it is necessary that they present a high degree…
Relativistic electron beams produced by intense lasers over short distances have important applications in high energy density physics and medical technologies. Vacuum laser acceleration with plasma mirrors injectors has garnered…
We report on systematic and high-precision measurements of dephasing, an effect that fundamentally limits the performance of laser wakefield accelerators. Utilizing shock-front injection, a technique providing stable, tunable and…
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…
The energy gain in laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) is ultimately limited by dephasing, occurring when accelerated electrons outrun the accelerating phase of the wakefield. We apply quasi-phasematching, enabled by axially modulated…
The phase velocity of the wakefield of a laser wakefield accelerator can, theoretically, be manipulated by shaping the longitudinal plasma density profile, thus controlling the parameters of the generated electron beam. We present an…
Plasma wakefield accelerators are capable of sustaining gigavolt-per-centimeter accelerating fields, surpassing the electric breakdown threshold in state-of-the-art accelerator modules by 3-4 orders of magnitude. Beam-driven wakefields…
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 ($w_0 < \lambda_p$)…
Since it is possible to form laser pulses with a frequency much larger than the frequency of visible light, Prof. T.Tajima proposed using such pulse to accelerate the particles at its injection into the crystal. Here, the wakefield…
This is brief review of acceleration of electrons in plasma wakefields driven by either intense laser pulses or particle beams following lectures at the 2019 CERN Accelerator School on plasma accelerators, held at Sesimbra, Portugal. The…
We demonstrate experimentally the resonant excitation of plasma waves by trains of laser pulses. We also take an important first step to achieving an energy recovery plasma accelerator by showing that unused wakefield energy can be removed…
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 method for changing the length of laser wakefield electron acceleration in a gas jet by a cylindrical blast wave created by a perpendicularly focused nanosecond laser pulse. The shock front destroys the wake thus stopping…
We propose a new approach based on an all-optical set-up for generating relativistic polarized electron beams via vortex Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser-driven wakefield acceleration. Using a pre-polarized gas target, we find that the topology…
This paper presents the first experimental realization of a scheme that allows for the tuning of the axial energy deposition velocity of a focal spot with relativistic intensity. By combining a tunable pulse-front curvature with the axial…
In an electron wakefield accelerator, an intense laser pulse or charged particle beam excites plasma waves. Under proper conditions, electrons from the background plasma are trapped in the plasma wave and accelerated to ultra-relativistic…
Laser wakefield acceleration offers the promise of a compact electron accelerator for generating a multi-GeV electron beam using the huge field gradient induced by an intense laser pulse, compared to conventional rf accelerators. However,…
Laser wakefield accelerators rely on relativistically moving micron-sized plasma cavities that provide extremely high electric field >100GV/m. Here, we demonstrate transverse shaping of the plasma cavity to produce controlled sub-GeV…
A high repetition rate electron source was generated by tightly focusing kHz, few-mJ laser pulses into an underdense plasma. This high intensity laser-plasma interaction led to stable electron beams over several hours but with strikingly…