Using a laser plasma accelerator, experiments with a 80 TW and 30 fs laser pulse demonstrated quasi-monoenergetic electron spectra with maximum energy over 0.4 GeV. This is achieved using a supersonic He gas jet and a sharp density ramp generated by a high intensity laser crossing pre-pulse focused 3 ns before the main laser pulse. By adjusting this crossing pre-pulse position inside the gas jet, among the laser shots with electron injection more than 40% can produce quasi-monoenergetic spectra. This could become a relatively straight forward technique to control laser wakefield electron beams parameters.
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 ($w_0 < lambda_p$) interactions, beam break-up prevents stable propagation of the pulse. High field gradients lead to non-localized phase injection of electrons, and thus broad energy spread beams. However for long focal length geometries ($w_0 > lambda_p$), a single optical filament can capture the majority of the laser energy, and self-guide over distances comparable to the dephasing length, even for these short-pulses ($ctau approx lambda_p$). This allows the wakefield to evolve to the correct shape for the production of the monoenergetic electron bunches, as measured in the experiment.
Dense high-energy monoenergetic proton beams are vital for wide applications, thus modern laser-plasma-based ion acceleration methods are aiming to obtain high-energy proton beams with energy spread as low as possible. In this work, we put forward a quantum radiative compression method to post-compress a highly accelerated proton beam and convert it to a dense quasi-monoenergetic one. We find that when the relativistic plasma produced by radiation pressure acceleration collides head-on with an ultraintense laser beam, large-amplitude plasma oscillations are excited due to quantum radiation-reaction and the ponderomotive force, which induce compression of the phase space of protons located in its acceleration phase with negative gradient. Our three-dimensional spin-resolved QED particle-in-cell simulations show that hollow-structure proton beams with a peak energy $sim$ GeV, relative energy spread of few percents and number $N_psim10^{10}$ (or $N_psim 10^9$ with a $1%$ energy spread) can be produced in near future laser facilities, which may fulfill the requirements of important applications, such as, for radiography of ultra-thick dense materials, or as injectors of hadron colliders.
Narrow bandwidth, high energy photon sources can be generated by Thomson scattering of laser light from energetic electrons, and detailed control of the interaction is needed to produce high quality sources. We present analytic calculations of the energy-angular spectra and photon yield that parametrize the influences of the electron and laser beam parameters to allow source design. These calculations, combined with numerical simulations, are applied to evaluate sources using conventional scattering in vacuum and methods for improving the source via laser waveguides or plasma channels. We show that the photon flux can be greatly increased by using a plasma channel to guide the laser during the interaction. Conversely, we show that to produce a given number of photons, the required laser energy can be reduced by an order of magnitude through the use of a plasma channel. In addition, we show that a plasma can be used as a compact beam dump, in which the electron beam is decelerated in a short distance, thereby greatly reducing radiation shielding. Realistic experimental errors such as transverse jitter are quantitatively shown to be tolerable. Examples of designs for sources capable of performing nuclear resonance fluorescence and photofission are provided.
A detailed study of direct laser-driven electron acceleration in paraxial Laguerre-Gaussian modes corresponding to helical beams $text{LG}_{0m}$ with azimuthal modes $m=left{1,2,3,4,5right}$ is presented. Due to the difference between the ponderomotive force of the fundamental Gaussian beam $text{LG}_{00}$ and helical beams $text{LG}_{0m}$ we found that the optimal beam waist leading to the most energetic electrons at full width at half maximum is more than twice smaller for the latter and corresponds to a few wavelengths $Delta w_0=left{6,11,19right}lambda_0$ for laser powers of $P_0 = left{0.1,1,10right}$ PW. We also found that for azimuthal modes $mgeq 3$ the optimal waist should be smaller than $Delta w_0 < 19 lambda_0$. Using these optimal values we have observed that the average kinetic energy gain of electrons is about an order of magnitude larger in helical beams compared to the fundamental Gaussian beam. This average energy gain increases with the azimuthal index $m$ leading to collimated electrons of a few $100$ MeV energy in the direction of the laser propagation.
The dynamic process of a laser or particle beam propagating from vacuum into underdense plasma has been investigated theoretically. Our theoretical model combines a Lagrangian fluid model with the classic quasistatic wakefield theory. It is found that background electrons can be injected into wakefields because sharp vacuum-plasma transitions can reduce the injection threshold. The injection condition, injection threshold as well as the injection length can be given theoretically by our model and are compared with results from computer simulations. Moreover, electron beams of high qualities can be produced near the injection thresholds and the proposed scheme is promising in reducing the injection threshold and improving the beam qualities of plasma based accelerators.