Revealing Laser and Electron Beam Evolution in 10-GeV-class Laser-Plasma Accelerators
Abstract
Guiding relativistically intense laser pulses in low-density plasmas enables extended acceleration lengths in laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs), allowing for the production of multi-GeV electron beams. Quantitative interpretation of such experiments is often limited by substantial uncertainties in key plasma parameters, particularly the transverse density profile of hydrodynamic optically field-ionized channels. Distinct plasma density distributions can produce similar terminal beam energies, complicating efforts to infer the underlying interaction physics from measurements at the accelerator exit alone. By combining longitudinally resolved electron beam diagnostics with independent measurements of laser spectral evolution in a 10 GeV LPA, we establish a multi-observable constraint on plasma density profiles. Once plasma downramps are taken into account, excellent agreement is observed with simulation over the entire accelerator length for two plasma channel sizes. The validated simulations indicate that extending the accelerator length to 65 cm would increase the electron beam energy to 15 GeV. They also point the way to achieving 20 GeV electron beams in 70 cm via linear matching using the same 24 J laser energy.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.25823,
title = {Revealing Laser and Electron Beam Evolution in 10-GeV-class Laser-Plasma Accelerators},
author = {H. Tang and A. Picksley and C. Benedetti and R. Li and H. E. Tsai and T. Mandal and E. Park and K. Nakamura and J. Stackhouse and D. Terzani and C. B. Schroeder and J. van Tilborg and J. Osterhoff and C. G. R. Geddes and A. J. Gonsalves},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.25823},
year = {2026}
}