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.
Development of x-ray phase contrast imaging applications with a laboratory scale source have been limited by the long exposure time needed to obtain one image. We demonstrate, using the Betatron x-ray radiation produced when electrons are accelerated
and wiggled in the laser-wakefield cavity, that a high quality phase contrast image of a complex object (here, a bee), located in air, can be obtained with a single laser shot. The Betatron x-ray source used in this proof of principle experiment has a source diameter of 1.7 microns and produces a synchrotron spectrum with critical energy E_c=12.3 +- 2.5 keV and 10^9 photons per shot in the whole spectrum.
Betatron X-ray radiation in laser-plasma accelerators is produced when electrons are accelerated and wiggled in the laser-wakefield cavity. This femtosecond source, producing intense X-ray beams in the multi kiloelectronvolt range has been observed a
t different interaction regime using high power laser from 10 to 100 TW. However, none of the spectral measurement performed were at sufficient resolution, bandwidth and signal to noise ratio to precisely determine the shape of spectra with a single laser shot in order to avoid shot to shot fluctuations. In this letter, the Betatron radiation produced using a 80 TW laser is characterized by using a single photon counting method. We measure in single shot spectra from 8 to 21 keV with a resolution better than 350 eV. The results obtained are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions and demonstrate the synchrotron type nature of this radiation mechanism. The critical energy is found to be Ec = 5.6 pm 1 keV for our experimental conditions. In addition, the features of the source at this energy range open novel perspectives for applications in time-resolved X-ray science.
We use optical-pump terahertz-probe spectroscopy to investigate the near-threshold behavior of the photoinduced insulator-to-metal (IM) transition in vanadium dioxide thin films. Upon approaching Tc a reduction in the fluence required to drive the IM
transition is observed, consistent with a softening of the insulating state due to an increasing metallic volume fraction (below the percolation limit). This phase coexistence facilitates the growth of a homogeneous metallic conducting phase following superheating via photoexcitation. A simple dynamic model using Bruggeman effective medium theory describes the observed initial condition sensitivity.
