No Arabic abstract
A new method of controllable injection to generate high quality electron bunches in the nonlinear blowout regime driven by electron beams is proposed and demonstrated using particle-in-cell simulations. Injection is facilitated by decreasing the wake phase velocity through varying the spot size of the drive beam and can be tuned through the Courant-Snyder (CS) parameters. Two regimes are examined. In the first, the spot size is focused according to the vacuum CS beta function, while in the second, it is focused by the plasma ion column. The effects of the driver intensity and vacuum CS parameters on the wake velocity and injected beam parameters are examined via theory and simulations. For plasma densities of $sim 10^{19} ~text{cm}^{-3}$, particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations demonstrate that peak normalized brightnesses $gtrsim 10^{20}~text{A}/text{m}^2/text{rad}^2$ can be obtained with projected energy spreads of $lesssim 1%$ within the middle section of the injected beam, and with normalized slice emittances as low as $sim 10 ~text{nm}$.
A unique facility for laser plasma physics and advanced accelerator research has been built recently at Tsinghua Universtiy. This system is based on Tsinghua Thomson scattering X-ray source (TTX), which combining an ultrafast TW laser with a synchronized 45MeV high brightness linac. In our recent laser wakefield acceleration experiments, we have obtained 10~40MeV high quality monoenergetic electron beams by running the laser at 5TW peak power. Under certain conditions, very low relative energy spread of a few percent can be achieved. Absolute charge calibration for three different scintillating screens has also been performed using the linac system.
The double laser pulse approach to relativistic electron beam (REB) collimation has been investigated at the LULI-ELFIE facility. In this scheme, the magnetic field generated by the first laser-driven REB is used to guide a second delayed REB. We show how electron beam collimation can be controlled by properly adjusting laser parameters. By changing the ratio of focus size and the delay time between the two pulses we found a maximum of electron beam collimation clearly dependent on the focal spot size ratio of the two laser pulses and related to the magnetic field dynamics. Cu-K alpha and CTR imaging diagnostics were implemented to evaluate the collimation effects on the respectively low energy (< 100 keV) and high energy (> MeV) components of the REB.
A previously unexplored experimental scheme is presented for generating low-divergence, ultra-dense, relativistic, electron-positron beams using 400 GeV/c protons available at facilities such as HiRadMat and AWAKE at CERN. Preliminary Monte-Carlo and Particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate the possibility of generating beams containing $10^{13}-10^{14}$ electron-positron pairs at sufficiently high densities to drive collisionless beam-plasma instabilities, which are expected to play an important role in magnetic field generation and the related radiation signatures of relativistic astrophysical phenomena. The pair beams are quasi-neutral, with size exceeding several skin-depths in all dimensions, allowing for the first time the examination of the effect of competition between transverse and longitudinal instability modes on the growth of magnetic fields. Furthermore, the presented scheme allows for the possibility of controlling the relative density of hadrons to electron-positron pairs in the beam, making it possible to explore the parameter spaces for different astrophysical environments.
A method of slicing of high-energy electron beams following their interaction with the transverse component of the wakefield left in a plasma behind a high intensity ultra short laser pulse is proposed. The transverse component of the wakefield focuses a portion of the electron bunch, which experiences betatron oscillations. The length of the focused part of the electron bunch can be made substantially less than the wakefield wavelength.
Modern particle accelerators and their applications increasingly rely on precisely coordinated interactions of intense charged particle and laser beams. Femtosecond-scale synchronization alongside micrometre-scale spatial precision are essential e.g. for pump-probe experiments, seeding and diagnostics of advanced light sources and for plasma-based accelerators. State-of-the-art temporal or spatial diagnostics typically operate with low-intensity beams to avoid material damage at high intensity. As such, we present a plasma-based approach, which allows measurement of both temporal and spatial overlap of high-intensity beams directly at their interaction point. It exploits amplification of plasma afterglow arising from the passage of an electron beam through a laser-generated plasma filament. The corresponding photon yield carries the spatiotemporal signature of the femtosecond-scale dynamics, yet can be observed as a visible light signal on microsecond-millimetre scales.