No Arabic abstract
The transverse properties of an electron beam are characterized by two quantities, the emittance which indicates the electron beam extend in the phase space and the angular momentum which allows for non-planar electron trajectories. Whereas the emittance of electron beams produced in laser- plasma accelerator has been measured in several experiments, their angular momentum has been scarcely studied. It was demonstrated that electrons in laser-plasma accelerator carry some angular momentum, but its origin was not established. Here we identify one source of angular momentum growth and we present experimental results showing that the angular momentum content evolves during the acceleration.
Relativistic interaction of short-pulse lasers with underdense plasmas has recently led to the emergence of a novel generation of femtosecond x-ray sources. Based on radiation from electrons accelerated in plasma, these sources have the common properties to be compact and to deliver collimated, incoherent and femtosecond radiation. In this article we review, within a unified formalism, the betatron radiation of trapped and accelerated electrons in the so-called bubble regime, the synchrotron radiation of laser-accelerated electrons in usual meter-scale undulators, the nonlinear Thomson scattering from relativistic electrons oscillating in an intense laser field, and the Thomson backscattered radiation of a laser beam by laser-accelerated electrons. The underlying physics is presented using ideal models, the relevant parameters are defined, and analytical expressions providing the features of the sources are given. Numerical simulations and a summary of recent experimental results on the different mechanisms are also presented. Each section ends with the foreseen development of each scheme. Finally, one of the most promising applications of laser-plasma accelerators is discussed: the realization of a compact free-electron laser in the x-ray range of the spectrum. In the conclusion, the relevant parameters characterizing each sources are summarized. Considering typical laser-plasma interaction parameters obtained with currently available lasers, examples of the source features are given. The sources are then compared to each other in order to define their field of applications.
It is shown that an electron-neutrino beam, propagating in a background plasma, can be decomposed into orbital momentum (OAM) states, similar to the OAM photon states. Coupling between different OAM neutrino states, in the presence of a plasma vortex, is considered. We show that plasma vorticity can be transfered to the neutrino beam, which is relevant to the understanding of the neutrino sources in astrophysics. Observation of neutrino OAM states could eventually become possible.
We study theoretically the exchange of angular momentum between a photon beam and a plasma vortex, and demonstrate the possible excitation of photon angular momentum states in a plasma. This can be relevant to laboratory and space plasma diagnostics; radio astronomy self-calibration; and generating photon angular momentum beams. A static plasma perturbation with helical structure, and a rotating plasma vortex are studied in detail and a comparison between these two cases, and their relevance to the physical nature of photon OAM, is established.
In a laser plasma accelerator (LPA), a short and intense laser pulse propagating in a plasma drives a wakefield (a plasma wave with a relativistic phase velocity) that can sustain extremely large electric fields, enabling compact accelerating structures. Potential LPA applications include compact radiation sources and high energy linear colliders. We propose and study plasma wave excitation by an incoherent combination of a large number of low energy laser pulses (i.e., without constraining the pulse phases). We show that, in spite of the incoherent nature of electromagnetic fields within the volume occupied by the pulses, the excited wakefield is regular and its amplitude is comparable or equal to that obtained using a single, coherent pulse with the same energy. These results provide a path to the next generation of LPA-based applications, where incoherently combined multiple pulses may enable high repetition rate, high average power LPAs.
Laser-plasma accelerators can produce high quality electron beams, up to giga-electronvolts in energy, from a centimeter scale device. The properties of the electron beams and the accelerator stability are largely determined by the injection stage of electrons into the accelerator. The simplest mechanism of injection is self-injection, in which the wakefield is strong enough to trap cold plasma electrons into the laser wake. The main drawback of this method is its lack of shot-to-shot stability. Here we present experimental and numerical results that demonstrate the existence of two different self-injection mechanisms. Transverse self-injection is shown to lead to low stability and poor quality electron beams, because of a strong dependence on the intensity profile of the laser pulse. In contrast, longitudinal injection, which is unambiguously observed for the first time, is shown to lead to much more stable acceleration and higher quality electron beams.