Related papers: Controlled kHz laser-driven electron irradiations …
The excitation of surface plasmons with ultra-intense ($I\sim 5\times 10^{19}$ W/cm$^2$), high contrast ($\sim 10^{12}$) laser pulses on periodically-modulated solid targets has been recently demonstrated to produce collimated bunches of…
A new scheme for injection and acceleration of electrons in wakefield accelerators is suggested based on the co-action of a laser pulse and an electron beam. This synergy leads to stronger wakefield generation and higher energy gain in the…
An ultra-short (about 30 fs) petawatt laser pulse focused with a wide focal spot (about 100 microns) in a rarefied plasma (electron density of order 10^{17} per cm^3) excites a nonlinear plasma wakefield which can accelerate injected…
The direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in underdense plasmas can provide 100s of nC of electrons accelerated to near-GeV energies using currently available lasers. Here we demonstrate the key role of electron transverse…
The concepts in this thesis comprise three groups focusing on: (1) fast electron sources, (2) THz injectors, and (3) THz linacs. First, the feasibility of ultrafast, high-yield electron emitters based on nanostructured cathodes is…
We demonstrate strong adiabatic laser alignment and mixed-field orientation at kHz repetition rates. We observe degrees of alignment as large as cos\Theta=0.94 at 1 kHz operation for iodobenzene. The experimental setup consist of a kHz…
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,…
Proton acceleration by ultra-intense laser pulse irradiating a target with cross-section smaller than the laser spot size and connected to a parabolic density channel is investigated. The target splits the laser into two parallel…
Direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in a plasma of near critical electron density (NCD) and associated synchrotron-like radiation are discussed for moderate relativistic laser intensity (the normalized laser amplitude $a_0$ $\leq$…
We present on THz generation in the two-color gas plasma scheme driven by a high-power, ultrafast fiber laser system. The applied scheme is a promising approach for scaling the THz average power but it has been limited so far by the driving…
Direct laser acceleration of ions by short frequency-chirped laser pulses is investigated theoretically. We demonstrate that intense beams of ions with a kinetic energy broadening of about 1 % can be generated. The chirping of the laser…
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…
An ultracold electron source based on near-threshold photoionization of a laser-cooled and trapped atomic gas is presented in this work. Initial DC acceleration to $\sim$10 keV and subsequent acceleration of the created bunches to 100 keV…
Laser-driven plasma accelerators can generate accelerating gradients three orders of magnitude larger than radio-frequency accelerators and have achieved beam energies above 1 GeV in centimetre long stages. However, the pulse repetition…
Strong optical forces with minimal spontaneous emission are desired for molecular deceleration and atom interferometry applications. We report experimental benchmarking of such a stimulated optical force driven by ultrafast laser pulses. We…
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…
The development of a directional, small-divergence, and short-duration picosecond x-ray probe beam with an energy greater than 50 keV is desirable for high energy density science experiments. We therefore explore through particle-in-cell…
Proton (and ion) cancer therapy has proven to be an extremely effective even supe-rior method of treatment for some tumors 1-4. A major problem, however, lies in the cost of the particle accelerator facilities; high procurement costs…
The development of the semiconductor quantum cascade laser (QCL) [1] has enabled bright coherent sources operating at frequencies between the optical (>100 THz) and electronic (<0.5 THz) ranges opening this frequency region for fundamental…
We report on the first simultaneous measurement of high-order harmonics, relativistic electrons and low divergence proton beams generated from plasma mirrors driven at kHz repetition rate by relativistic-intensity milliJoule-energy…