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Sample records for laser wakefield accelerator

  1. Laser wakefield acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Esarey, E.; Ting, A.; Sprangle, P.

    1989-01-01

    The laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) is a novel plasma based electron acceleration scheme which utilizes a relativistic optical guiding mechanism for laser pulse propagation. In the LWFA, a short, high power, single frequency laser pulse is propagated through a plasma. As the laser pulse propagates, its radial and axial ponderomotive forces nonresonantly generate large amplitude plasma waves (wakefields) with a phase velocity equal to the group velocity of the pulse. A properly phased electron bunch may then be accelerated by the axial wakefield and focused by the transverse wakefield. Optical guiding of the laser pulse in the plasma is necessary in order to achieve high energies in a single stage of acceleration. At sufficiently high laser powers, optical guiding may be achieved through relativistic effects associated with the plasma electrons. Preliminary analysis indicates that this scheme may overcome some of the difficulties present in the plasma beat wave accelerator and in the plasma wakefield accelerator. Analytical and numerical calculations are presented which study both laser pulse propagation within a plasma as well as the subsequent generation of large amplitude plasma waves. In addition, the generation of large amplitude plasma waves in regimes where the plasma waves become highly nonlinear is examined

  2. Photon acceleration in laser wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trines, R. M. G. M.

    2007-01-01

    If the index of a refraction of a dispersive medium, such as a plasma, changes in time, it can be used to change the frequency of light propagating through the medium. This effect is called photon acceleration. It has been predicted in both theory and simulations, and also been demonstrated experimentally for the case of moving ionization fronts in gases (the so-called ionization blueshift) as well as for laser-driven wakefields.Here, we present studies of photon acceleration in laser-driven plasma wakefields. The unique spectral characteristics of this process will be discussed, to distinguish it from e.g. photon acceleration by ionization fronts, frequency domain interferometry or self-phase modulation. The dynamics of the photons in laser-wakefield interaction are studied through both regular particle-in-cell and wave-kinetic simulations. The latter approach provides a powerful, versatile, and easy-to-use method to track the propagation of individual spectral components, providing new insight into the physics of laser-plasma interaction. Theory, simulations and experimental results will be brought together to provide a full understanding of the dynamics of a laser pulse in its own wakefield.Even though the wave-kinetic approach mentioned above has mainly been developed for the description of laser-plasma interaction, it can be applied to a much wider range of fast wave-slow wave interaction processes: Langmuir waves-ion acoustic waves, drift waves-zonal flow, Rossby waves-zonal flow, or even photons-gravitational waves. Several recent results in these areas will be shown, often with surprising results

  3. A proposed laser wakefield acceleration experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ebrahim, N.A.

    1995-05-01

    In this report we discuss the basic concepts of a laser wakefield experiment using an ultrashort laser pulse. In particular, we obtain some heuristic estimates of experimental parameters relevant to an experiment to test the laser wakefield acceleration concept. (author). 8 refs., 2 tabs

  4. Monoenergetic laser wakefield acceleration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. E. Andreev

    2000-02-01

    Full Text Available Three dimensional test particle simulations are applied to optimization of the plasma-channeled laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA operating in a weakly nonlinear regime. Electron beam energy spread, emittance, and luminosity depend upon the proportion of the electron bunch size to the plasma wavelength. This proportion tends to improve with the laser wavelength increase. We simulate a prospective two-stage ∼1GeV LWFA with controlled energy spread and emittance. The input parameters correspond to realistic capabilities of the BNL Accelerator Test Facility that features a picosecond-terawatt CO_{2} laser and a high-brightness electron gun.

  5. Laser-driven wakefield electron acceleration and associated radiation sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davoine, X.

    2009-10-01

    The first part of this research thesis introduces the basic concepts needed for the understanding of the laser-driven wakefield acceleration. It describes the properties of the used laser beams and plasmas, presents some notions about laser-plasma interactions for a better understanding of the physics of laser-driven acceleration. The second part deals with the numerical modelling and the presentation of simulation tools needed for the investigation of laser-induced wakefield acceleration. The last part deals with the optical control of the injection, a technique analogous to the impulsion collision scheme

  6. Plasma Density Tapering for Laser Wakefield Acceleration of Electrons and Protons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ting, A.; Gordon, D.; Kaganovich, D.; Sprangle, P.; Helle, M.; Hafizi, B.

    2010-01-01

    Extended acceleration in a Laser Wakefield Accelerator can be achieved by tailoring the phase velocity of the accelerating plasma wave, either through profiling of the density of the plasma or direct manipulation of the phase velocity. Laser wakefield acceleration has also reached a maturity that proton acceleration by wakefield could be entertained provided we begin with protons that are substantially relativistic, ∼1 GeV. Several plasma density tapering schemes are discussed. The first scheme is called ''bucket jumping'' where the plasma density is abruptly returned to the original density after a conventional tapering to move the accelerating particles to a neighboring wakefield period (bucket). The second scheme is designed to specifically accelerate low energy protons by generating a nonlinear wakefield in a plasma region with close to critical density. The third scheme creates a periodic variation in the phase velocity by beating two intense laser beams with laser frequency difference equal to the plasma frequency. Discussions and case examples with simulations are presented where substantial acceleration of electrons or protons could be obtained.

  7. Towards external injection in laser wakefield acceleration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stragier, X.F.D.

    2011-01-01

    In laser wakefield acceleration (LWA) a plasma wave is driven by a high intensity ultra short laser pulse and the longitudinal electric fields in the plasma wave are used to accelerate electron bunches. Electrons with an appropriate kinetic energy, injected on the right phase of the plasma wave, get

  8. Laser wakefield accelerator based light sources: potential applications and requirements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Albert, F. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). NIF and Photon Sciences; Thomas, A. G. [Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences; Mangles, S. P.D. [Imperial College, London (United Kingdom). Blackett Lab.; Banerjee, S. [Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States); Corde, S. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Flacco, A. [ENSTA, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France); Litos, M. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Neely, D. [Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Oxford (United Kingdom). Rutherford Appleton Lab. (RAL). Central Laser Facility; Viera, J. [Univ. of Lisbon (Portugal). GoLP-Inst. de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear-Lab. Associado; Najmudin, Z. [Imperial College, London (United Kingdom). Blackett Lab.; Bingham, R. [Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Oxford (United Kingdom). Rutherford Appleton Lab. (RAL). Central Laser Facility; Joshi, C. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering; Katsouleas, T. [Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States). Platt School of Engineering

    2015-01-15

    In this article we review the prospects of laser wakefield accelerators as next generation light sources for applications. This work arose as a result of discussions held at the 2013 Laser Plasma Accelerators Workshop. X-ray phase contrast imaging, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and nuclear resonance fluorescence are highlighted as potential applications for laser-plasma based light sources. We discuss ongoing and future efforts to improve the properties of radiation from plasma betatron emission and Compton scattering using laser wakefield accelerators for these specific applications.

  9. Radio-isotope production using laser Wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leemans, W.P.; Rodgers, D.; Catravas, P.E.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Fubiani, G.; Toth, C.; Esarey, E.; Shadwick, B.A.; Donahue, R.; Smith, A.; Reitsma, A.

    2001-01-01

    A 10 Hz, 10 TW solid state laser system has been used to produce electron beams suitable for radio-isotope production. The laser beam was focused using a 30 cm focal length f/6 off-axis parabola on a gas plume produced by a high pressure pulsed gas jet. Electrons were trapped and accelerated by high gradient wakefields excited in the ionized gas through the self-modulated laser wakefield instability. The electron beam was measured to contain excesses of 5 nC/bunch. A composite Pb/Cu target was used to convert the electron beam into gamma rays which subsequently produced radio-isotopes through (gamma, n) reactions. Isotope identification through gamma-ray spectroscopy and half-life time measurements demonstrated that Cu 61 was produced which indicates that 20-25 MeV gamma rays were produced, and hence electrons with energies greater than 25-30 MeV. The production of high energy electrons was independently confirmed using a bending magnet spectrometer. The measured spectra had an exponential distribution with a 3 MeV width. The amount of activation was on the order of 2.5 uCi after 3 hours of operation at 1 Hz. Future experiments will aim at increasing this yield by post-accelerating the electron beam using a channel guided laser wakefield accelerator

  10. Radiation pressure injection in laser-wakefield acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Y. L.; Kuramitsu, Y.; Isayama, S.; Chen, S. H.

    2018-01-01

    We investigated the injection of electrons in laser-wakefield acceleration induced by a self-modulated laser pulse by a two dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The localized electric fields and magnetic fields are excited by the counter-streaming flows on the surface of the ion bubble, owing to the Weibel or two stream like instability. The electrons are injected into the ion bubble from the sides of it and then accelerated by the wakefield. Contrary to the conventional wave breaking model, the injection of monoenergetic electrons are mainly caused by the electromagnetic process. A simple model was proposed to address the instability, and the growth rate was verified numerically and theoretically.

  11. Self-injection threshold in self-guided laser wakefield accelerators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. P. D. Mangles

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available A laser pulse traveling through a plasma can excite large amplitude plasma waves that can be used to accelerate relativistic electron beams in a very short distance—a technique called laser wakefield acceleration. Many wakefield acceleration experiments rely on the process of wave breaking, or self-injection, to inject electrons into the wave, while other injection techniques rely on operation without self-injection. We present an experimental study into the parameters, including the pulse energy, focal spot quality, and pulse power, that determine whether or not a wakefield accelerator will self-inject. By taking into account the processes of self-focusing and pulse compression we are able to extend a previously described theoretical model, where the minimum bubble size k_{p}r_{b} required for trapping is not constant but varies slowly with density and find excellent agreement with this model.

  12. Laser wakefield accelerator experiments at LBNL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leemans, W.P.; Rodgers, D.; Catravas, P.E.; Fubiani, G.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Esarey, E.; Shadwick, B.A.; Brussaard, G.J.H.; Tilborg, J. van; Chattopadhyay, S.; Wurtele, J.S.; Archambault, L.; Dickinson, M.R.; DiMaggio, S.; Short, R.; Barat, K.L.; Donahue, R.; Floyd, J.; Smith, A.; Wong, E.

    2001-01-01

    The status is presented of the laser wakefield acceleration research at the l'OASIS laboratory of the Center for Beam Physics at LBNL. Experiments have been performed on laser driven production of relativistic electron beams from plasmas using a high repetition rate (10 Hz), high power (10 TW) Ti:sapphire (0.8 μm) laser system. Large amplitude plasma waves have been excited in the self-modulated laser wakefield regime by tightly focusing (spot diameter 8 μm) a single high power (≤10 TW), ultra-short (≥50 fs) laser pulse onto a high density (>10 19 cm -3 ) pulsed gasjet (length 1.2 mm). Nuclear activation measurements in lead and copper targets indicate the production of electrons with energy in excess of 25 MeV. This result was confirmed by electron distribution measurements using a bending magnet spectrometer. Progress on implementing the colliding pulse laser injection method is also presented. This method is expected to produce low emittance ( 7 electrons/bunch

  13. Proof on principle experiments of laser wakefield acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakajima, K.; Kawakubo, T.; Nakanishi, H.

    1994-01-01

    The principle of laser wakefield particle acceleration has been tested by the Nd:glass laser system providing a short pulse with a power of 10 TW and a duration of 1 ps. Electrons accelerated up to 18 MeV/c have been observed by injecting 1 MeV/c electrons emitted from a solid target by an intense laser impact. The accelerating field gradient of 30 GeV/m is inferred. (author)

  14. Experimental results of laser wakefield acceleration using a femtosecond terawatt laser pulse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kando, Masaki; Ahn, Hyeyoung; Dewa, Hideki

    1999-01-01

    Laser wakefield acceleration (LWA) experiments have been carried out in an underdense plasma driven by a 2 TW, 90 fs laser pulse synchronized with a 17 MeV RF linac electron injector at 10 Hz. Around optimum plasma densities for LWA, we have observed electrons accelerated to 35 MeV. Wakefield excitation has been confirmed by measuring the electron density oscillation with a frequency domain interferometer. At plasma densities higher than the optimum density, we have also observed high energy electrons over 100 MeV up to 200 MeV. (author)

  15. Electromagnetic radiation from a laser wakefield accelerator

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Khachatryan, A.G.; van Goor, F.A.; Boller, Klaus J.

    2008-01-01

    Coherent and incoherent electromagnetic radiation emitted from a laser wakefield accelerator is calculated based on Lienard-Wiechert potentials. It is found that at wavelengths longer than the bunch length, the radiation is coherent. The coherent radiation, which typically lies in the infrared

  16. Control of electron injection and acceleration in laser-wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guillaume, E.

    2015-01-01

    Laser-plasma accelerators provide a promising compact alternative to conventional accelerators. Plasma waves with extremely strong electric fields are generated when a high intensity laser is focused into an underdense gas target. Electrons that are trapped in these laser-driven plasma waves can be accelerated up to energies of a few GeVs. Despite their great potential, laser-wakefield accelerators face some issues, regarding notably the stability and reproducibility of the beam when electrons are injected in the accelerating structure. In this manuscript, different techniques of electron injection are presented and compared, notably injection in a sharp density gradient and ionization injection. It is shown that combining these two methods allows for the generation of stable and tunable electron beams. We have also studied a way to manipulate the electron bunch in the phase-space in order to accelerate the bunch beyond the dephasing limit. Such a technique was used with quasi-monoenergetic electron beams to enhance their energy. Moreover, the origin of the evolution of the angular momentum of electrons observed experimentally was investigated. Finally, we demonstrated experimentally a new method - the laser-plasma lens - to strongly reduce the divergence of the electron beam. This laser-plasma lens consists of a second gas jet placed at the exit of the accelerator. The laser pulse drives a wakefield in this second jet whose focusing forces take advantage to reduce the divergence of the trailing electron bunch. A simple analytical model describing the principle is presented, underlining the major importance of the second jet length, density and distance from the first jet. Experimental demonstration of the laser-plasma lens shows a divergence reduction by a factor of 2.6 for electrons up to 300 MeV, in accordance with the model predictions

  17. Transverse emittance growth in staged laser-wakefield acceleration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. Mehrling

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available We present a study on the emittance evolution of electron bunches, externally injected into laser-driven plasma waves using the three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC code OSIRIS. Results show order-of-magnitude transverse emittance growth during the injection process, if the electron bunch is not matched to its intrinsic betatron motion inside the wakefield. This behavior is supported by analytic theory reproducing the simulation data to a percent level. The length over which the full emittance growth develops is found to be less than or comparable to the typical dimension of a single plasma module in current multistage designs. In addition, the analytic theory enables the quantitative prediction of emittance degradation in two consecutive accelerators coupled by free-drift sections, excluding this as a scheme for effective emittance-growth suppression, and thus suggests the necessity of beam-matching sections between acceleration stages with fundamental implications on the overall design of staged laser-wakefield accelerators.

  18. Experimental signatures of direct-laser-acceleration-assisted laser wakefield acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaw, J. L.; Lemos, N.; Marsh, K. A.; Froula, D. H.; Joshi, C.

    2018-04-01

    The direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) operating in the forced or quasi-blowout regimes has been investigated through experiment and simulation. When there is a significant overlap between the trapped electrons and the drive laser in a LWFA cavity, the resulting electrons can gain energy from both the LWFA and the DLA mechanisms. Experimental work investigates the properties of the electron beams produced in a LWFA with ionization injection by dispersing those beams in the direction perpendicular to the laser polarization. These electron beams show certain spectral features that are characteristic of DLA. These characteristic features are reproduced using particle-in-cell simulations, where particle tracking was used to elucidate the roles of LWFA and DLA to the energy gain of the electrons in this experimental regime and to demonstrate that such spectral features are definitive signatures of the presence of DLA in LWFA.

  19. Laser Wakefield Acceleration Driven by a CO2 Laser (STELLA-LW) - Final Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kimura, Wayne D

    2008-06-27

    The original goals of the Staged Electron Laser AccelerationLaser Wakefield (STELLA-LW) program were to investigate two new methods for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). In pseudo-resonant LWFA (PR-LWFA), a laser pulse experiences nonlinear pulse steepening while traveling through the plasma. This steepening allows the laser pulse to generate wakefields even though the laser pulse length is too long for resonant LWFA to occur. For the conditions of this program, PR-LWFA requires a minimum laser peak power of 3 TW and a low plasma density (10^16 cm^-3). Seeded self-modulated LWFA (seeded SM-LWFA) combines LWFA with plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA). An ultrashort (~100 fs) electron beam bunch acts as a seed in a plasma to form a wakefield via PWFA. This wakefield is subsequently amplified by the laser pulse through a self-modulated LWFA process. At least 1 TW laser power and, for a ~100-fs bunch, a plasma density ~10^17 cm^-3 are required. STELLA-LW was located on Beamline #1 at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) Accelerator Test Facility (ATF). The ATF TW CO2 laser served as the driving laser beam for both methods. For PR-LWFA, a single bunch was to probe the wakefield produced by the laser beam. For seeded SM-LWFA, the ATF linac would produce two bunches, where the first would be the seed and the second would be the witness. A chicane would compress the first bunch to enable it to generate wakefields via PWFA. The plasma source was a short-length, gas-filled capillary discharge with the laser beam tightly focused in the center of the capillary, i.e., no laser guiding was used, in order to obtain the needed laser intensity. During the course of the program, several major changes had to be made. First, the ATF could not complete the upgrade of the CO2 laser to the 3 TW peak power needed for the PR-LWFA experiment. Therefore, the PR-LWFA experiment had to be abandoned leaving only the seeded SM-LWFA experiment. Second, the ATF discovered that the

  20. A proof of principle experiment of laser wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakajima, K.; Enomoto, A.; Nakanishi, H.; Ogata, A.; Kato, Y.; Kitagawa, Y.; Mima, K.; Shiraga, H.; Yamakawa, K.; Downer, M.; Horton, W.; Newberger, B.; Tajima, T.

    1992-01-01

    Ultrashort super-intense lasers allow us to test a principle of the laser wakefield particle acceleration. The peak power of 30 TW and the pulse width of 1 ps produced by the Nd:glass laser system is capable of creating a highly-ionized plasma of a moderate density gas in an ultrafast time scale and generating a large amplitude plasma wave with the accelerating gradient of 2.5 GeV/m. Particle acceleration can be demonstrated by injecting a few MeV electrons emitted from a solid target by intense laser irradiation. (Author) 2 figs., 5 refs

  1. Laser wakefield acceleration with high-power, few-cycle mid-IR lasers

    OpenAIRE

    Papp, Daniel; Wood, Jonathan C.; Gruson, Vincent; Bionta, Mina; Gruse, Jan-Niclas; Cormier, Eric; Najmudin, Zulfikar; Légaré, François; Kamperidis, Christos

    2018-01-01

    The study of laser wakefield electron acceleration (LWFA) using mid-IR laser drivers is a promising path for future laser driven electronaccelerators, when compared to traditional near-IR laser drivers uperating at 0.8-1 {\\mu}m central wavelength ({\\lambda}laser), as the necessary vector potential a_0 for electron injection can be achieved with smaller laser powers due to the linear dependence on {\\lambda}laser. In this work, we perform 2D PIC simulations on LWFA using few-cycle high power (5...

  2. Supersonic jets of hydrogen and helium for laser wakefield acceleration

    CERN Document Server

    Svensson, K.; Wojda, F.; Senje, L.; Burza, M.; Aurand, B.; Genoud, G.; Persson, A.; Wahlström, C.-G.; Lundh, O.

    2016-01-01

    The properties of laser wakefield accelerated electrons in supersonic gas flows of hydrogen and helium are investigated. At identical backing pressure, we find that electron beams emerging from helium show large variations in their spectral and spatial distributions, whereas electron beams accelerated in hydrogen plasmas show a higher degree of reproducibility. In an experimental investigation of the relation between neutral gas density and backing pressure, it is found that the resulting number density for helium is ∼30% higher than for hydrogen at the same backing pressure. The observed differences in electron beam properties between the two gases can thus be explained by differences in plasma electron density. This interpretation is verified by repeating the laser wakefield acceleration experiment using similar plasma electron densities for the two gases, which then yielded electron beams with similar properties.

  3. Supersonic jets of hydrogen and helium for laser wakefield acceleration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Svensson

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The properties of laser wakefield accelerated electrons in supersonic gas flows of hydrogen and helium are investigated. At identical backing pressure, we find that electron beams emerging from helium show large variations in their spectral and spatial distributions, whereas electron beams accelerated in hydrogen plasmas show a higher degree of reproducibility. In an experimental investigation of the relation between neutral gas density and backing pressure, it is found that the resulting number density for helium is ∼30% higher than for hydrogen at the same backing pressure. The observed differences in electron beam properties between the two gases can thus be explained by differences in plasma electron density. This interpretation is verified by repeating the laser wakefield acceleration experiment using similar plasma electron densities for the two gases, which then yielded electron beams with similar properties.

  4. Electron Acceleration in Wakefield and Supra-Bubble Regimes by Ultraintense Laser with Asymmetric Pulse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maimaitiaili, Bake; Sayipjamal, Dulat; Aimierding, Aimidula; Xie Baisong

    2011-01-01

    Electron acceleration in plasma driven by circular polarized ultraintense laser with asymmetric pulse are investigated analytically and numerically in terms of oscillation-center Hamiltonian formalism. Studies include wakefield acceleration, which dominates in blow-out or bubble regime and snow-plow acceleration which dominates in supra-bubble regime. By a comparison with each other it is found that snow-plow acceleration has lower acceleration capability. In wakefield acceleration, there exists an obvious optimum pulse asymmetry or/and pulse lengths that leads to the high net energy gain while in snow-plow acceleration it is insensitive to the pulse lengths. Power and linear scaling laws for wakefield and snow-plow acceleration respetively are observed from the net energy gain depending on laser field amplitude. Moreover, there exists also an upper and lower limit on plasma density for an effective acceleration in both of regimes. (physics of gases, plasmas, and electric discharges)

  5. Design of an electron injector for multi-stages laser wakefield acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Audet, T.

    2016-01-01

    Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) is a particle acceleration process relying on the interaction between high intensity laser pulses, of the order of 10 18 W/cm 2 and a plasma. The plasma wave generated in the laser wake sustain high amplitude electric fields (1- 100 GV/m). Those electric fields are 3 orders of magnitude higher than maximum electric fields in radio frequency cavities and represent the main benefit of LWFA, allowing more compact acceleration. However improvements of the LWFA-produced electron bunches properties, stability and repetition rate are mandatory for LWFA to be usable for applications. A scheme to improve electron bunches properties and to potentially increase the repetition rate is multi-stage LWFA. The laser plasma electron source, called the injector, has to produce relatively low energy (50 - 100 MeV), but high charge, small size and low divergence electron bunches. Produced electron bunches then have to be transported and injected into a second stage to increase electron kinetic energy. The subject of this thesis is to study and design a laser wakefield electron injector for multistage LWFA. In the frame of CILEX and the two-stages LWFA program, a prototype of the injector was built : ELISA consisting in a variable length gas cell. The plasma electronic density, which is a critical parameter for the control of the electron bunches properties, was characterized both experimentally and numerically. ELISA was used at 2 different laser facilities and physical mechanisms linked to electron bunches properties were studied in function of experimental parameters. A range of experimental parameters suitable for a laser wakefield injector was determined. A magnetic transport and diagnostic line was also built, implemented and tested at the UHI100 laser facility of the CEA Saclay. It allowed a more precise characterization of electron bunches generated with ELISA as well as an estimation of the quality of transported electron bunches for their

  6. Preformed transient gas channels for laser wakefield particle acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wood, W.M.

    1994-01-01

    Acceleration of electrons by laser-driven plasma wake fields is limited by the range over which a laser pulse can maintain its intensity. This distance is typically given by the Rayleigh range for the focused laser beam, usually on the order of 0.1 mm to 1 mm. For practical particle acceleration, interaction distances on the order of centimeters are required. Therefore, some means of guiding high intensity laser pulses is necessary. Light intensities on the order of a few times 10 17 W/cm 2 are required for laser wakefield acceleration schemes using near IR radiation. Gas densities on the order of or greater than 10 17 cm -3 are also needed. Laser-atom interaction studies in this density and intensity regime are generally limited by the concomitant problems in beam propagation introduced by the creation of a plasma. In addition to the interaction distance limit imposed by the Rayleigh range, defocusing of the high intensity laser pulse further limits the peak intensity which can be achieved. To solve the problem of beam propagation limitations in laser-plasma wakefield experiments, two potential methods for creating transient propagation channels in gaseous targets are investigated. The first involves creation of a charge-neutral channel in a gas by an initial laser pulse, which then is ionized by a second, ultrashort, high-intensity pulse to create a waveguide. The second method involves the ionization of a gas column by an ultrashort pulse; a transient waveguide is formed by the subsequent expansion of the heated plasma into the neutral gas

  7. The influence of plasma density decreasement by pre-pulse on the laser wakefield acceleration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ke-Gong Dong

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available In the laser wakefield acceleration, the generation of electron beam is very sensitive to the plasma density. Not only the laser-wakefield interaction, but also the electron trapping and acceleration would be effected by the plasma density. However, the plasma density could be changed in the experiment by different reasons, which will result in the mismatch of parameters arranged initially. Forward Raman scattering spectrum demonstrated that the interaction density was decreased obviously in the experiment, which was verified by the pre-pulse conditions and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It was demonstrated that the plasma density was very important on the self-evolutions and energy coupling of laser pulse and wakefield, and eventually the energy spectrum of electron beam.

  8. Probing plasma wakefields using electron bunches generated from a laser wakefield accelerator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, C. J.; Wan, Y.; Guo, B.; Hua, J. F.; Pai, C.-H.; Li, F.; Zhang, J.; Ma, Y.; Wu, Y. P.; Xu, X. L.; Mori, W. B.; Chu, H.-H.; Wang, J.; Lu, W.; Joshi, C.

    2018-04-01

    We show experimental results of probing the electric field structure of plasma wakes by using femtosecond relativistic electron bunches generated from a laser wakefield accelerator. Snapshots of laser-driven linear wakes in plasmas with different densities and density gradients are captured. The spatiotemporal evolution of the wake in a plasma density up-ramp is recorded. Two parallel wakes driven by a laser with a main spot and sidelobes are identified in the experiment and reproduced in simulations. The capability of this new method for capturing the electron- and positron-driven wakes is also shown via 3D particle-in-cell simulations.

  9. Observation of laser multiple filamentation process and multiple electron beams acceleration in a laser wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Wentao; Liu, Jiansheng; Wang, Wentao; Chen, Qiang; Zhang, Hui; Tian, Ye; Zhang, Zhijun; Qi, Rong; Wang, Cheng; Leng, Yuxin; Li, Ruxin; Xu, Zhizhan

    2013-01-01

    The multiple filaments formation process in the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) was observed by imaging the transmitted laser beam after propagating in the plasma of different density. During propagation, the laser first self-focused into a single filament. After that, it began to defocus with energy spreading in the transverse direction. Two filaments then formed from it and began to propagate independently, moving away from each other. We have also demonstrated that the laser multiple filamentation would lead to the multiple electron beams acceleration in the LWFA via ionization-induced injection scheme. Besides, its influences on the accelerated electron beams were also analyzed both in the single-stage LWFA and cascaded LWFA

  10. Laser wakefield acceleration using wire produced double density ramps

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Burza

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available A novel approach to implement and control electron injection into the accelerating phase of a laser wakefield accelerator is presented. It utilizes a wire, which is introduced into the flow of a supersonic gas jet creating shock waves and three regions of differing plasma electron density. If tailored appropriately, the laser plasma interaction takes place in three stages: Laser self-compression, electron injection, and acceleration in the second plasma wave period. Compared to self-injection by wave breaking of a nonlinear plasma wave in a constant density plasma, this scheme increases beam charge by up to 1 order of magnitude in the quasimonoenergetic regime. Electron acceleration in the second plasma wave period reduces electron beam divergence by ≈25%, and the localized injection at the density downramps results in spectra with less than a few percent relative spread.

  11. Simulation of density measurements in plasma wakefields using photo acceleration

    CERN Document Server

    Kasim, Muhammad Firmansyah; Ceurvorst, Luke; Sadler, James; Burrows, Philip N; Trines, Raoul; Holloway, James; Wing, Matthew; Bingham, Robert; Norreys, Peter

    2015-01-01

    One obstacle in plasma accelerator development is the limitation of techniques to diagnose and measure plasma wakefield parameters. In this paper, we present a novel concept for the density measurement of a plasma wakefield using photon acceleration, supported by extensive particle in cell simulations of a laser pulse that copropagates with a wakefield. The technique can provide the perturbed electron density profile in the laser’s reference frame, averaged over the propagation length, to be accurate within 10%. We discuss the limitations that affect the measurement: small frequency changes, photon trapping, laser displacement, stimulated Raman scattering, and laser beam divergence. By considering these processes, one can determine the optimal parameters of the laser pulse and its propagation length. This new technique allows a characterization of the density perturbation within a plasma wakefield accelerator.

  12. Novel gas target for laser wakefield accelerators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aniculaesei, C.; Kim, Hyung Taek; Yoo, Byung Ju; Oh, Kyung Hwan; Nam, Chang Hee

    2018-02-01

    A novel gas target for interactions between high power lasers and gaseous medium, especially for laser wakefield accelerators, has been designed, manufactured, and characterized. The gas target has been designed to provide a uniform density profile along the central gas cell axis by combining a gas cell and slit nozzle. The gas density has been tuned from ˜1017 atoms/cm3 to ˜1019 atoms/cm3 and the gas target length can be varied from 0 to 10 cm; both changes can be made simultaneously while keeping the uniform gas profile. The gas density profile inside the gas cell has been measured using interferometry and validated using computational fluid dynamics.

  13. Laser wakefield electron acceleration. A novel approach employing supersonic microjets and few-cycle laser pulses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schmid, Karl

    2011-01-01

    This thesis covers the few-cycle laser-driven acceleration of electrons in a laser-generated plasma. This process, known as laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA), relies on strongly driven plasma waves for the generation of accelerating gradients in the vicinity of several 100 GV/m, a value four orders of magnitude larger than that attainable by conventional accelerators. This thesis demonstrates that laser pulses with an ultrashort duration of 8 fs and a peak power of 6 TW allow the production of electron energies up to 50 MeV via LWFA. The special properties of laser accelerated electron pulses, namely the ultrashort pulse duration, the high brilliance, and the high charge density, open up new possibilities in many applications of these electron beams. (orig.)

  14. Beam manipulation for compact laser wakefield accelerator based free-electron lasers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loulergue, A; Labat, M; Benabderrahmane, C; Couprie, M E; Evain, C; Malka, V

    2015-01-01

    Free-electron lasers (FELs) are a unique source of light, particularly in the x-ray domain. After the success of FELs based on conventional acceleration using radio-frequency cavities, an important challenge is the development of FELs based on electron bunching accelerated by a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA). However, the present LWFA electron bunch properties do not permit use directly for a significant FEL amplification. It is known that longitudinal decompression of electron beams delivered by state-of-the-art LWFA eases the FEL process. We propose here a second order transverse beam manipulation turning the large inherent transverse chromatic emittances of LWFA beams into direct FEL gain advantage. Numerical simulations are presented showing that this beam manipulation can further enhance by orders of magnitude the peak power of the radiation. (paper)

  15. On the quasi-monoenergetic electron beam generation in the laser wakefield acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bulanov, S.V.; Tajima, Toshiki

    2005-01-01

    A new phase of laser acceleration research has entered, as signified by the recent reports in Nature 9/30/05 of the generation of quasi-monoenergetic electron beam by laser wakefield acceleration in three experiments. We survey the current status of experiments and offer their theoretical interpretation. We understand why the choice of parameters is of such importance and why the earlier experiments showed energy spectra far from monoenergy. (author)

  16. Dynamics of electron acceleration in laser-driven wakefields. Acceleration limits and asymmetric plasma waves

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Popp, Antonia

    2011-12-16

    The experiments presented in this thesis study several aspects of electron acceleration in a laser-driven plasma wave. High-intensity lasers can efficiently drive a plasma wave that sustains electric fields on the order of 100 GV/m. Electrons that are trapped in this plasma wave can be accelerated to GeV-scale energies. As the accelerating fields in this scheme are 3-4 orders of magnitude higher than in conventional radio-frequency accelerators, the necessary acceleration distance can be reduced by the same factor, turning laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA) into a promising compact, and potentially cheaper, alternative. However, laser-accelerated electron bunches have not yet reached the parameter standards of conventional accelerators. This work will help to gain better insight into the acceleration process and to optimize the electron bunch properties. The 25 fs, 1.8 J-pulses of the ATLAS laser at the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics were focused into a steady-state flow gas cell. This very reproducible and turbulence-free gas target allows for stable acceleration of electron bunches. Thus the sensitivity of electron parameters to subtle changes of the experimental setup could be determined with meaningful statistics. At optimized experimental parameters, electron bunches of {approx}50 pC total charge were accelerated to energies up to 450 MeV with a divergence of {approx}2 mrad FWHM. As, in a new design of the gas cell, its length can be varied from 2 to 14 mm, the electron bunch energy could be evaluated after different acceleration distances, at two different electron densities. From this evolution important acceleration parameters could be extracted. At an electron density of 6.43. 10{sup 18} cm{sup -3} the maximum electric field strength in the plasma wave was determined to be {approx}160 GV/m. The length after which the relativistic electrons outrun the accelerating phase of the electric field and are decelerated again, the so-called dephasing length

  17. Dynamics of electron acceleration in laser-driven wakefields. Acceleration limits and asymmetric plasma waves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Popp, Antonia

    2011-01-01

    The experiments presented in this thesis study several aspects of electron acceleration in a laser-driven plasma wave. High-intensity lasers can efficiently drive a plasma wave that sustains electric fields on the order of 100 GV/m. Electrons that are trapped in this plasma wave can be accelerated to GeV-scale energies. As the accelerating fields in this scheme are 3-4 orders of magnitude higher than in conventional radio-frequency accelerators, the necessary acceleration distance can be reduced by the same factor, turning laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA) into a promising compact, and potentially cheaper, alternative. However, laser-accelerated electron bunches have not yet reached the parameter standards of conventional accelerators. This work will help to gain better insight into the acceleration process and to optimize the electron bunch properties. The 25 fs, 1.8 J-pulses of the ATLAS laser at the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics were focused into a steady-state flow gas cell. This very reproducible and turbulence-free gas target allows for stable acceleration of electron bunches. Thus the sensitivity of electron parameters to subtle changes of the experimental setup could be determined with meaningful statistics. At optimized experimental parameters, electron bunches of ∼50 pC total charge were accelerated to energies up to 450 MeV with a divergence of ∼2 mrad FWHM. As, in a new design of the gas cell, its length can be varied from 2 to 14 mm, the electron bunch energy could be evaluated after different acceleration distances, at two different electron densities. From this evolution important acceleration parameters could be extracted. At an electron density of 6.43. 10 18 cm -3 the maximum electric field strength in the plasma wave was determined to be ∼160 GV/m. The length after which the relativistic electrons outrun the accelerating phase of the electric field and are decelerated again, the so-called dephasing length, was found to be 4.9 mm

  18. Simulation of density measurements in plasma wakefields using photon acceleration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Firmansyah Kasim

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available One obstacle in plasma accelerator development is the limitation of techniques to diagnose and measure plasma wakefield parameters. In this paper, we present a novel concept for the density measurement of a plasma wakefield using photon acceleration, supported by extensive particle in cell simulations of a laser pulse that copropagates with a wakefield. The technique can provide the perturbed electron density profile in the laser’s reference frame, averaged over the propagation length, to be accurate within 10%. We discuss the limitations that affect the measurement: small frequency changes, photon trapping, laser displacement, stimulated Raman scattering, and laser beam divergence. By considering these processes, one can determine the optimal parameters of the laser pulse and its propagation length. This new technique allows a characterization of the density perturbation within a plasma wakefield accelerator.

  19. Plasma wakefields driven by an incoherent combination of laser pulses: a path towards high-average power laser-plasma accelerators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Benedetti, C.; Schroeder, C.B.; Esarey, E.; Leemans, W.P.

    2014-05-01

    he wakefield generated in a plasma by incoherently combining a large number of low energy laser pulses (i.e.,without constraining the pulse phases) is studied analytically and by means of fully-self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations. The structure of the wakefield has been characterized and its amplitude compared with the amplitude of the wake generated by a single (coherent) laser pulse. We show that, in spite of the incoherent nature of the wakefield within the volume occupied by the laser pulses, behind this region the structure of the wakefield can be regular with an amplitude comparable or equal to that obtained from a single pulse with the same energy. Wake generation requires that the incoherent structure in the laser energy density produced by the combined pulses exists on a time scale short compared to the plasma period. Incoherent combination of multiple laser pulses may enable a technologically simpler path to high-repetition rate, high-average power laser-plasma accelerators and associated applications.

  20. Acceleration of laser-injected electron beams in an electron-beam driven plasma wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knetsch, Alexander

    2018-03-01

    Plasma wakefields deliver accelerating fields that are approximately a 100 times higher than those in conventional radiofrequency or even superconducting radiofrequency cavities. This opens a transformative path towards novel, compact and potentially ubiquitous accelerators. These prospects, and the increasing demand for electron accelerator beamtime for various applications in natural, material and life sciences, motivate the research and development on novel plasma-based accelerator concepts. However, these electron beam sources need to be understood and controlled. The focus of this thesis is on electron beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) and the controlled injection and acceleration of secondary electron bunches in the accelerating wake fields by means of a short-pulse near-infrared laser. Two laser-triggered injection methods are explored. The first one is the Trojan Horse Injection, which relies on very good alignment and timing control between electron beam and laser pulse and then promises electron bunches with hitherto unprecedented quality as regards emittance and brightness. The physics of electron injection in the Trojan Horse case is explored with a focus on the final longitudinal bunch length. Then a theoretical and numerical study is presented that examines the physics of Trojan Horse injection when performed in an expanding wake generated by a smooth density down-ramp. The benefits are radically decreased drive-electron bunch requirements and a unique bunch-length control that enables longitudinal electron-bunch shaping. The second laser-triggered injection method is the Plasma Torch Injection, which is a versatile, all-optical laser-plasma-based method capable to realize tunable density downramp injection. At the SLAC National Laboratory, the first proof-of-principle was achieved both for Trojan Horse and Plasma Torch injection. Setup details and results are reported in the experimental part of the thesis along with the commissioning

  1. Localization of ionization-induced trapping in a laser wakefield accelerator using a density down-ramp

    CERN Document Server

    Hansson, M.; Ekerfelt, H.; Aurand, B.; Gallardo Ganzalez, I.; Desforges, F. G.; Davoine, X.; Maitrallain, A.; Reymond, S.; Monot, P.; Persson, A.; Dobosz Dufrénoy S.; Wahlström C-G.; Cros, B.; Lundh, O.

    2016-01-01

    We report on a study on controlled trapping of electrons, by field ionization of nitrogen ions, in laser wakefield accelerators in variable length gas cells. In addition to ionization-induced trapping in the density plateau inside the cells, which results in wide, but stable, electron energy spectra, a regime of ionization-induced trapping localized in the density down-ramp at the exit of the gas cells, is found. The resulting electron energy spectra are peaked, with 10% shot-to-shot fluctuations in peak energy. Ionization-induced trapping of electrons in the density down-ramp is a way to trap and accelerate a large number of electrons, thus improving the efficiency of the laser-driven wakefield acceleration.

  2. High quality electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wiggins, S M; Issac, R C; Welsh, G H; Brunetti, E; Shanks, R P; Anania, M P; Cipiccia, S; Manahan, G G; Aniculaesei, C; Ersfeld, B; Islam, M R; Burgess, R T L; Vieux, G; Jaroszynski, D A [SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom); Gillespie, W A [SUPA, Division of Electronic Engineering and Physics, University of Dundee, Dundee (United Kingdom); MacLeod, A M [School of Computing and Creative Technologies, University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee (United Kingdom); Van der Geer, S B; De Loos, M J, E-mail: m.wiggins@phys.strath.ac.u [Pulsar Physics, Burghstraat 47, 5614 BC Eindhoven (Netherlands)

    2010-12-15

    High quality electron beams have been produced in a laser-plasma accelerator driven by femtosecond laser pulses with a peak power of 26 TW. Electrons are produced with an energy up to 150 MeV from the 2 mm gas jet accelerator and the measured rms relative energy spread is less than 1%. Shot-to-shot stability in the central energy is 3%. Pepper-pot measurements have shown that the normalized transverse emittance is {approx}1{pi} mm mrad while the beam charge is in the range 2-10 pC. The generation of high quality electron beams is understood from simulations accounting for beam loading of the wakefield accelerating structure. Experiments and self-consistent simulations indicate that the beam peak current is several kiloamperes. Efficient transportation of the beam through an undulator is simulated and progress is being made towards the realization of a compact, high peak brilliance free-electron laser operating in the vacuum ultraviolet and soft x-ray wavelength ranges.

  3. Multistage Coupling of Laser-Wakefield Accelerators with Curved Plasma Channels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, J.; Chen, M.; Wu, W. Y.; Weng, S. M.; Sheng, Z. M.; Schroeder, C. B.; Jaroszynski, D. A.; Esarey, E.; Leemans, W. P.; Mori, W. B.; Zhang, J.

    2018-04-01

    Multistage coupling of laser-wakefield accelerators is essential to overcome laser energy depletion for high-energy applications such as TeV-level electron-positron colliders. Current staging schemes feed subsequent laser pulses into stages using plasma mirrors while controlling electron beam focusing with plasma lenses. Here a more compact and efficient scheme is proposed to realize the simultaneous coupling of the electron beam and the laser pulse into a second stage. A partly curved channel, integrating a straight acceleration stage with a curved transition segment, is used to guide a fresh laser pulse into a subsequent straight channel, while the electrons continue straight. This scheme benefits from a shorter coupling distance and continuous guiding of the electrons in plasma while suppressing transverse beam dispersion. Particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that the electron beam from a previous stage can be efficiently injected into a subsequent stage for further acceleration while maintaining high capture efficiency, stability, and beam quality.

  4. Scaling laws of design parameters for plasma wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Uhm, Han S.; Nam, In H.; Suk, Hyyong

    2012-01-01

    Simple scaling laws for the design parameters of plasma wakefield accelerators were obtained using a theoretical model, which were confirmed via particle simulation studies. It was found that the acceleration length was given by Δx=0.804λ p /(1−β g ), where λ p is the plasma wavelength and β g c the propagation velocity of the ion cavity. The acceleration energy can also be given by ΔE=(γ m −1)mc 2 =2.645mc 2 /(1−β g ), where m is the electron rest mass. As expected, the acceleration length and energy increase drastically as β g approached unity. These simple scaling laws can be very instrumental in the design of better-performing plasma wakefield accelerators. -- Highlights: ► Simple scaling laws for the design parameters of laser wakefield accelerators were obtained using a theoretical model. ► The scaling laws for acceleration length and acceleration energy were compared with particle-in-cell simulation results. ► The acceleration length and the energy increase drastically as β g approaches unity. ► These simple scaling laws can be very instrumental in the design of laser wakefield accelerators.

  5. Improvement of the quality of laser-wakefield accelerators: towards a compact free-electron laser

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lehe, R.

    2014-01-01

    When an intense and short laser pulse propagates through an underdense gas, it can accelerate a fraction of the electrons of the gas, and thereby generate an electron bunch with an energy of a few hundreds of MeV. This phenomenon, which is referred to as laser-wakefield acceleration, has many potential applications, including the design of ultra-bright X-ray sources known as free electron lasers (FEL). However, these applications require the electron bunch to have an excellent quality (low divergence, emittance and energy spread). In this thesis, different solutions to improve the quality of the electron bunch are developed, both analytically and through the use of Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations. It is first shown however that PIC simulations tend to erroneously overestimate the emittance of the bunch, due to the numerical Cherenkov effect. Thus, in order to correctly estimate the emittance, a modified PIC algorithm is proposed, which is not subject to this unphysical Cherenkov effect. Using this algorithm, we have observed and studied a new mechanism to generate the electron bunch: optical transverse injection. This mechanism can produce bunches with a high charge, a low emittance and a low energy spread. In addition, we also proposed an experimental setup - the laser-plasma lens - which can strongly reduce the final divergence of the bunch. Finally, these results are put into context by discussing the properties required for the design of a compact FEL. It is shown in particular that laser-wakefield accelerator could be advantageously combined with innovative laser-plasma undulators, in order to produce bright X-rays sources. (author)

  6. Sapphire capillaries for laser-driven wakefield acceleration in plasma. Fs-laser micromachining and characterization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schwinkendorf, Jan-Patrick

    2012-05-01

    Plasma wakefields are a promising approach for the acceleration of electrons with ultrahigh (10 to 100 GV/m) electric fields. Nowadays, high-intensity laser pulses are routinely utilized to excite these large-amplitude plasma waves. However, several detrimental effects such as laser diffraction, electron-wake dephasing and laser depletion may terminate the acceleration process. Two of these phenomena can be mitigated or avoided by the application of capillary waveguides, e.g. fabricated out of sapphire for longevity. Capillaries may compensate for laser diffraction like a fiber and allow for the creation of tapered gas-density profiles working against the dephasing between the accelerating wave and the particles. Additionally, they offer the possibility of controlled particle injection. This thesis is reporting on the set up of a laser for fs-micromachining of capillaries of almost arbitrary shapes and a test stand for density-profile characterization. These devices will permit the creation of tailored gas-density profiles for controlled electron injection and acceleration inside plasma.

  7. Sapphire capillaries for laser-driven wakefield acceleration in plasma. Fs-laser micromachining and characterization

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schwinkendorf, Jan-Patrick

    2012-08-15

    Plasma wakefields are a promising approach for the acceleration of electrons with ultrahigh (10 to 100 GV/m) electric fields. Nowadays, high-intensity laser pulses are routinely utilized to excite these large-amplitude plasma waves. However, several detrimental effects such as laser diffraction, electron-wake dephasing and laser depletion may terminate the acceleration process. Two of these phenomena can be mitigated or avoided by the application of capillary waveguides, e.g. fabricated out of sapphire for longevity. Capillaries may compensate for laser diffraction like a fiber and allow for the creation of tapered gas-density profiles working against the dephasing between the accelerating wave and the particles. Additionally, they offer the possibility of controlled particle injection. This thesis is reporting on the set up of a laser for fs-micromachining of capillaries of almost arbitrary shapes and a test stand for density-profile characterization. These devices will permit the creation of tailored gas-density profiles for controlled electron injection and acceleration inside plasma.

  8. Gamma-neutron activation experiments using laser wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leemans, W.P.; Rodgers, D.; Catravas, P.E.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Fubiani, G.; Esarey, E.; Shadwick, B.A.; Donahue, R.; Smith, A.

    2001-01-01

    Gamma-neutron activation experiments have been performed with relativistic electron beams produced by a laser wakefield accelerator. The electron beams were produced by tightly focusing (spot diameter ≅6 μm) a high power (up to 10 TW), ultra-short (≥50 fs) laser beam from a high repetition rate (10 Hz) Ti:sapphire (0.8 μm) laser system, onto a high density (>10 19 cm -3 ) pulsed gasjet of length ≅1.5 mm. Nuclear activation measurements in lead and copper targets indicate the production of electrons with energy in excess of 25 MeV. This result was confirmed by electron distribution measurements using a bending magnet spectrometer. Measured γ-ray and neutron yields are also found to be in reasonable agreement with simulations using a Monte Carlo transport code

  9. Study of the Betatron and Compton X-ray sources produced in laser wakefield acceleration of electrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferri, Julien

    2016-01-01

    An ultra-short and ultra-intense laser pulse propagating in a low-density gas can accelerate in its wake a part of the electrons ionized from the gas to relativistic energies of a few hundreds of MeV over distances of a few millimeters only. During their acceleration, as a consequence of their transverse motion, these electrons emit strongly collimated X-rays in the forward direction, which are called betatron radiations. The characteristics of this source turn it into an interesting tool for high-resolution imagery.In this thesis, we explore three different axis to work on this source using simulations on the Particles-In-Cells codes CALDER and CALDER-Circ. We first study the creation of a betatron X-ray source with kilo-joule and pico-second laser pulses, for which duration and energy are then much higher than usual in this domain. In spite of the unusual laser parameters, we show that X-ray sources can still be generated, furthermore in two different regimes.In a second study, the generally observed discrepancies between experiments and simulations are investigated. We show that the use of realistic laser profiles instead of Gaussian ones in the simulations strongly degrades the performances of the laser-plasma accelerator and of the betatron source. Additionally, this leads to a better qualitative and quantitative agreement with the experiment. Finally, with the aim of improving the X-ray emission, we explore several techniques based on the manipulation of the plasma density profile used for acceleration. We find that both the use of a transverse gradient and of a density step increases the amplitude of the electrons transverse motions, and then increases the radiated energy. Alternatively, we show that this goal can also be achieved through the transition from a laser wakefield regime to a plasma wakefield regime induced by an increase of the density. The laser wakefield optimizes the electron acceleration whereas the plasma wakefield favours the X

  10. Short-range wakefields generated in the blowout regime of plasma-wakefield acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stupakov, G.

    2018-04-01

    In the past, calculation of wakefields generated by an electron bunch propagating in a plasma has been carried out in linear approximation, where the plasma perturbation can be assumed small and plasma equations of motion linearized. This approximation breaks down in the blowout regime where a high-density electron driver expels plasma electrons from its path and creates a cavity void of electrons in its wake. In this paper, we develop a technique that allows us to calculate short-range longitudinal and transverse wakes generated by a witness bunch being accelerated inside the cavity. Our results can be used for studies of the beam loading and the hosing instability of the witness bunch in plasma-wakefield and laser-wakefield acceleration.

  11. Study of Laser Wakefield Accelerators as injectors for Synchrotron light sources

    CERN Document Server

    Hillenbrand, Steffen; Müller, Anke-Susanne; Jansen, Oliver; Judin, Vitali; Pukhov, Alexander

    2014-01-01

    Laser WakeField Accelerators (LWFA) feature short bunch lengths and high peak currents, combined with a small facility footprint. This makes them very interesting as injectors for Synchrotron light sources. Using the ANKA Synchrotron as an example, we investigate the possibility to inject a LWFA bunch into an electron storage ring. Particular emphasis is put on the longitudinal evolution of the bunch.

  12. Optically controlled seeding of Raman forward scattering and injection of electrons in a self-modulated laser-wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, W.-T.; Chien, T.-Y.; Lee, C.-H.; Lin, J.-Y.; Wang, J.; Chen, S.-Y.

    2004-01-01

    Optical seeding of plasma waves and the injection of electrons are key issues in self-modulated laser-wakefield accelerators. By implementing a copropagating laser prepulse with proper timing, we are able to control the growth of Raman forward scattering and the production of accelerated electrons. The dependence of the Raman intensity on prepulse timing indicates that the seeding of Raman forward scattering is dominated by the ionization-induced wakefield, and the dependence of the divergence and number of accelerated electrons further reveals that the stimulated Raman backward scattering of the prepulse plays the essential role of injecting hot electrons into the fast plasma wave driven by the main pulse

  13. Shaping of pulses in optical grating-based laser systems for optimal control of electrons in laser plasma wake-field accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toth, Cs.; Faure, J.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Tilborg, J. van; Leemans, W.P.

    2003-01-01

    In typical chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser systems, scanning the grating separation in the optical compressor causes the well know generation of linear chirp of frequency vs. time in a laser pulse, as well as a modification of all the higher order phase terms. By setting the compressor angle slightly different from the optimum value to generate the shortest pulse, a typical scan around this value will produce significant changes to the pulse shape. Such pulse shape changes can lead to significant differences in the interaction with plasmas such as used in laser wake-field accelerators. Strong electron yield dependence on laser pulse shape in laser plasma wake-field electron acceleration experiments have been observed in the L'OASIS Lab of LBNL [1]. These experiments show the importance of pulse skewness parameter, S, defined here on the basis of the ratio of the ''head-width-half-max'' (HWHM) and the ''tail-width-halfmax'' (TWHM), respectively

  14. Argonne Wakefield Accelerator update '92

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosing, M.; Balka, L.; Chojnacki, E.; Gai, W.; Ho, C.; Konecny, R.; Power, J.; Schoessow, P.; Simpson, J.

    1992-01-01

    The construction of the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) is under way. The majority of the hardware is about to be delivered or is installed. Radiation safety systems are in the review process, and the laser system is operational. Bunch production should begin in December 1992. 4 refs., 5 figs

  15. A high current, short pulse electron source for wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ho, Ching-Hung.

    1992-01-01

    Design studies for the generation of a high current, short pulse electron source for the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator are presented. An L-band laser photocathode rf gun cavity is designed using the computer code URMEL to maximize the electric field on the cathode surface for fixed frequency and rf input power. A new technique using a curved incoming laser wavefront to minimize the space charge effect near the photocathode is studied. A preaccelerator with large iris to minimize wakefield effects is used to boost the drive beam to a useful energy of around 20 MeV for wakefield acceleration experiments. Focusing in the photocathode gun and the preaccelerator is accomplished with solenoids. Beam dynamics simulations throughout the preaccelerator are performed using particle simulation codes TBCI-SF and PARMELA. An example providing a useful set of operation parameters for the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator is given. The effects of the sagitta of the curved beam and laser amplitude and timing jitter effects are discussed. Measurement results of low rf power level bench tests and a high power test for the gun cavity are presented and discussed

  16. Electron injection by evolution of self-modulated laser wakefields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Changbum; Kim, Guang-Hoon; Kim, Jong-Uk; Lee, Hae June; Suk, Hyyong; Ko, In Soo

    2003-01-01

    Self-injection mechanisms in the self-modulated laser wakefield acceleration (SM-LWFA) are investigated. Two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations show that a significant amount of plasma electrons can be self-injected into the acceleration phase of a laser wakefield by a dynamic increase in the wake wavelength in the longitudinal direction. In this process, it is found that the wake wavelength increases due to the relativistic effect and this leads to a large amount of electron injection into the wakefields. In this paper, the injection phenomena are studied with 2D simulations and a brief explanation of the new self-injection mechanism is presented. (author)

  17. Injection of electrons by colliding laser pulses in a laser wakefield accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hansson, M., E-mail: martin.hansson@fysik.lth.se; Aurand, B.; Ekerfelt, H.; Persson, A.; Lundh, O.

    2016-09-01

    To improve the stability and reproducibility of laser wakefield accelerators and to allow for future applications, controlling the injection of electrons is of great importance. This allows us to control the amount of charge in the beams of accelerated electrons and final energy of the electrons. Results are presented from a recent experiment on controlled injection using the scheme of colliding pulses and performed using the Lund multi-terawatt laser. Each laser pulse is split into two parts close to the interaction point. The main pulse is focused on a 2 mm diameter gas jet to drive a nonlinear plasma wave below threshold for self-trapping. The second pulse, containing only a fraction of the total laser energy, is focused to collide with the main pulse in the gas jet under an angle of 150°. Beams of accelerated electrons with low divergence and small energy spread are produced using this set-up. Control over the amount of accelerated charge is achieved by rotating the plane of polarization of the second pulse in relation to the main pulse. Furthermore, the peak energy of the electrons in the beams is controlled by moving the collision point along the optical axis of the main pulse, and thereby changing the acceleration length in the plasma. - Highlights: • Compact colliding pulse injection set-up used to produce low energy spread e-beams. • Beam charge controlled by rotating the polarization of injection pulse. • Peak energy controlled by point of collision to vary the acceleration length.

  18. Acceleration of on-axis and ring-shaped electron beams in wakefields driven by Laguerre-Gaussian pulses

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhang, Guo-Bo [College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073 (China); Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (MOE) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Chen, Min, E-mail: minchen@sjtu.edu.cn, E-mail: yanyunma@126.com; Luo, Ji; Zeng, Ming; Yuan, Tao; Yu, Ji-Ye; Yu, Lu-Le; Weng, Su-Ming [Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (MOE) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Ma, Yan-Yun, E-mail: minchen@sjtu.edu.cn, E-mail: yanyunma@126.com [College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073 (China); Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Yu, Tong-Pu [College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073 (China); Sheng, Zheng-Ming [Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (MOE) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG (United Kingdom)

    2016-03-14

    The acceleration of electron beams with multiple transverse structures in wakefields driven by Laguerre-Gaussian pulses has been studied through three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell simulations. Under different laser-plasma conditions, the wakefield shows different transverse structures. In general cases, the wakefield shows a donut-like structure and it accelerates the ring-shaped hollow electron beam. When a lower plasma density or a smaller laser spot size is used, besides the donut-like wakefield, a central bell-like wakefield can also be excited. The wake sets in the center of the donut-like wake. In this case, both a central on-axis electron beam and a ring-shaped electron beam are simultaneously accelerated. Further, reducing the plasma density or laser spot size leads to an on-axis electron beam acceleration only. The research is beneficial for some potential applications requiring special pulse beam structures, such as positron acceleration and collimation.

  19. Plasma Wakefield Accelerated Beams for Demonstration of FEL Gain at FLASHForward

    OpenAIRE

    Niknejadi, Pardis; Aschikhin, Alexander; Hu, Zhanghu; Karstensen, Sven; Knetsch, Alexander; Kononenko, Olena; Libov, Vladyslav; Ludwig, Kai; Martinez de la Ossa, Alberto; Marutzky, Frank; Mehrling, Timon; Osterhoff, Jens; Behrens, Christopher; Palmer, Charlotte; Poder, Kristjan

    2017-01-01

    FLASHForward is the Future-ORiented Wakefield Accelerator Research and Development project at the DESY free-electron laser (FEL) facility FLASH. It aims to produce high-quality, GeV-energy electron beams over a plasma cell of a few centimeters. The plasma is created by means of a 25 TW Ti:Sapphire laser system. The plasma wakefield will be driven by high-current-density electron beams extracted from the FLASH accelerator. The project focuses on the advancement of plasma-based particle acceler...

  20. Femtosecond electron-bunch dynamics in laser wakefields and vacuum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. G. Khachatryan

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Recent advances in laser wakefield acceleration demonstrated the generation of extremely short (with a duration of a few femtoseconds relativistic electron bunches with relatively low (of the order of couple of percent energy spread. In this article we study the dynamics of such bunches in drift space (vacuum and in channel-guided laser wakefields. Analytical solutions were found for the transverse coordinate of an electron and for the bunch envelope in the wakefield in the case of arbitrary change in the energy. Our results show strong bunch dynamics already on a millimeter scale propagation distance both in plasma and in vacuum. When the bunch propagates in vacuum, its transverse sizes grow considerably; the same is observed for the normalized bunch emittance that worsens the focusability of the bunch. A scheme of two-stage laser wakefield accelerator with small drift space between the stages is proposed. It is found that fast longitudinal betatron phase mixing occurs in a femtosecond bunch when it propagates along the wakefield axis. When bunch propagates off axis, strong bunch decoherence and fast emittance degradation due to the finite bunch length was observed.

  1. Particle-in-cell simulation of x-ray wakefield acceleration and betatron radiation in nanotubes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaomei Zhang

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Though wakefield acceleration in crystal channels has been previously proposed, x-ray wakefield acceleration has only recently become a realistic possibility since the invention of the single-cycled optical laser compression technique. We investigate the acceleration due to a wakefield induced by a coherent, ultrashort x-ray pulse guided by a nanoscale channel inside a solid material. By two-dimensional particle-in-cell computer simulations, we show that an acceleration gradient of TeV/cm is attainable. This is about 3 orders of magnitude stronger than that of the conventional plasma-based wakefield accelerations, which implies the possibility of an extremely compact scheme to attain ultrahigh energies. In addition to particle acceleration, this scheme can also induce the emission of high energy photons at ∼O(10–100  MeV. Our simulations confirm such high energy photon emissions, which is in contrast with that induced by the optical laser driven wakefield scheme. In addition to this, the significantly improved emittance of the energetic electrons has been discussed.

  2. Externally Controlled Injection of Electrons by a Laser Pulse in a Laser Wakefield Electron Accelerator

    CERN Document Server

    Chen Szu Yuan; Chen Wei Ting; Chien, Ting-Yei; Lee, Chau-Hwang; Lin, Jiunn-Yuan; Wang, Jyhpyng

    2005-01-01

    Spatially and temporally localized injection of electrons is a key element for development of plasma-wave electron accelerator. Here we report the demonstration of two different schemes for electron injection in a self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator (SM-LWFA) by using a laser pulse. In the first scheme, by implementing a copropagating laser prepulse with proper timing, we are able to control the growth of Raman forward scattering and the production of accelerated electrons. We found that the stimulated Raman backward scattering of the prepulse plays the essential role of injecting hot electrons into the fast plasma wave driven by the pump pulse. In the second scheme, by using a transient density ramp we achieve self-injection of electrons in a SM-LWFA with spatial localization. The transient density ramp is produced by a prepulse propagating transversely to drill a density depression channel via ionization and expansion. The same mechanism of injection with comparable efficiency is also demonstrated wi...

  3. Improvements to laser wakefield accelerated electron beam stability, divergence, and energy spread using three-dimensional printed two-stage gas cell targets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vargas, M.; Schumaker, W.; He, Z.-H.; Zhao, Z.; Behm, K.; Chvykov, V.; Hou, B.; Krushelnick, K.; Maksimchuk, A.; Yanovsky, V.; Thomas, A. G. R.

    2014-01-01

    High intensity, short pulse lasers can be used to accelerate electrons to ultra-relativistic energies via laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) [T. Tajima and J. M. Dawson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 267 (1979)]. Recently, it was shown that separating the injection and acceleration processes into two distinct stages could prove beneficial in obtaining stable, high energy electron beams [Gonsalves et al., Nat. Phys. 7, 862 (2011); Liu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 035001 (2011); Pollock et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 045001 (2011)]. Here, we use a stereolithography based 3D printer to produce two-stage gas targets for LWFA experiments on the HERCULES laser system at the University of Michigan. We demonstrate substantial improvements to the divergence, pointing stability, and energy spread of a laser wakefield accelerated electron beam compared with a single-stage gas cell or gas jet target

  4. Improvements to laser wakefield accelerated electron beam stability, divergence, and energy spread using three-dimensional printed two-stage gas cell targets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vargas, M.; Schumaker, W.; He, Z.-H.; Zhao, Z.; Behm, K.; Chvykov, V.; Hou, B.; Krushelnick, K.; Maksimchuk, A.; Yanovsky, V.; Thomas, A. G. R., E-mail: agrt@umich.edu [Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States)

    2014-04-28

    High intensity, short pulse lasers can be used to accelerate electrons to ultra-relativistic energies via laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) [T. Tajima and J. M. Dawson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 267 (1979)]. Recently, it was shown that separating the injection and acceleration processes into two distinct stages could prove beneficial in obtaining stable, high energy electron beams [Gonsalves et al., Nat. Phys. 7, 862 (2011); Liu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 035001 (2011); Pollock et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 045001 (2011)]. Here, we use a stereolithography based 3D printer to produce two-stage gas targets for LWFA experiments on the HERCULES laser system at the University of Michigan. We demonstrate substantial improvements to the divergence, pointing stability, and energy spread of a laser wakefield accelerated electron beam compared with a single-stage gas cell or gas jet target.

  5. Computer simulations of a single-laser double-gas-jet wakefield accelerator concept

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. G. Hemker

    2002-04-01

    Full Text Available We report in this paper on full scale 2D particle-in-cell simulations investigating laser wakefield acceleration. First we describe our findings of electron beam generation by a laser propagating through a single gas jet. Using realistic parameters which are relevant for the experimental setup in our laboratory we find that the electron beam resulting after the propagation of a 0.8 μm, 50 fs laser through a 1.5 mm gas jet has properties that would make it useful for further acceleration. Our simulations show that the electron beam is generated when the laser exits the gas jet, and the properties of the generated beam, especially its energy, depend only weakly on most properties of the gas jet. We therefore propose to use the first gas jet as a plasma cathode and then use a second gas jet placed immediately behind the first to provide additional acceleration. Our simulations of this proposed setup indicate the feasibility of this idea and also suggest ways to optimize the quality of the resulting beam.

  6. Production of a monoenergetic electron bunch in a self-injected laser-wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chang, C.-L.; Hsieh, C.-T.; Ho, Y.-C.; Chen, Y.-S.; Lin, J.-Y.; Wang, J.; Chen, S.-Y.

    2007-01-01

    Production of a monoenergetic electron bunch in a self-injected laser-wakefield accelerator is investigated with a tomographic method which resolves the electron injection and acceleration processes. It is found that all the electrons in the monoenergetic electron bunch are injected at the same location in the plasma column and then accelerated with an acceleration gradient exceeding 2 GeV/cm. The injection position shifts with the position of pump-pulse focus, and no significant deceleration is observed for the monoenergetic electron bunch after it reaches the maximum energy. The results are consistent with the model of transverse wave breaking and beam loading for the injection of monoenergetic electrons. The tomographic method adds a crucial dimension to the whole array of existing diagnostics for laser beams, plasma waves, and electron beams. With this method the details of the underlying physical processes in laser-plasma interactions can be resolved and compared directly to particle-in-cell simulations

  7. Multiple quasi-monoenergetic electron beams from laser-wakefield acceleration with spatially structured laser pulse

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ma, Y.; Li, M. H.; Li, Y. F.; Wang, J. G.; Tao, M. Z.; Han, Y. J.; Zhao, J. R.; Huang, K.; Yan, W. C.; Ma, J. L.; Li, Y. T. [Beijing National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing 100080 (China); Chen, L. M., E-mail: lmchen@iphy.ac.cn [Beijing National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing 100080 (China); Department of Physics and Astronomy and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Li, D. Z. [Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS, Beijing 100049 (China); Chen, Z. Y. [Institute of Fluid Physics, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, Sichuan 621999 (China); Sheng, Z. M. [Department of Physics and Astronomy and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG (United Kingdom); Zhang, J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)

    2015-08-15

    By adjusting the focus geometry of a spatially structured laser pulse, single, double, and treble quasi-monoenergetic electron beams were generated, respectively, in laser-wakefield acceleration. Single electron beam was produced as focusing the laser pulse to a single spot. While focusing the laser pulse to two spots that are approximately equal in energy and size and intense enough to form their own filaments, two electron beams were produced. Moreover, with a proper distance between those two focal spots, three electron beams emerged with a certain probability owing to the superposition of the diffractions of those two spots. The energy spectra of the multiple electron beams are quasi-monoenergetic, which are different from that of the large energy spread beams produced due to the longitudinal multiple-injection in the single bubble.

  8. Reduced 3d modeling on injection schemes for laser wakefield acceleration at plasma scale lengths

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helm, Anton; Vieira, Jorge; Silva, Luis; Fonseca, Ricardo

    2017-10-01

    Current modelling techniques for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) are based on particle-in-cell (PIC) codes which are computationally demanding. In PIC simulations the laser wavelength λ0, in μm-range, has to be resolved over the acceleration lengths in meter-range. A promising approach is the ponderomotive guiding center solver (PGC) by only considering the laser envelope for laser pulse propagation. Therefore only the plasma skin depth λp has to be resolved, leading to speedups of (λp /λ0) 2. This allows to perform a wide-range of parameter studies and use it for λ0 Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, through Grant No. PTDC/FIS-PLA/2940/2014 and PD/BD/105882/2014.

  9. Low energy spread 100 MeV-1 GeV electron bunches from laser wakefield acceleration at LOASIS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geddes, C.G.R.; Esarey, E.; Michel, P.; Nagler, B.; Nakamura, K.; Plateau, G.R.; Schroeder, C.B.; Shadwick, B.A.; Toth, Cs.; Van Tilborg, J.; Leemans, W.P.; Hooker, S.M.; Gonsalves, A.J.; Michel, E.; Cary, J.R.; Bruhwiler, D.

    2006-01-01

    Experiments at the LOASIS laboratory of LBNL recently demonstrated production of 100 MeV electron beams with low energy spread and low divergence from laser wakefield acceleration. The radiation pressure of a 10 TW laser pulse guided over 10 diffraction ranges by a plasma density channel was used to drive an intense plasma wave (wakefield), producing acceleration gradients on the order of 100 GV/m in a mm-scale channel. Beam energy has now been increased from 100 to 1000 MeV by using a cm-scale guiding channel at lower density, driven by a 40TW laser, demonstrating the anticipated scaling to higher beam energies. Particle simulations indicate that the low energy spread beams were produced from self trapped electrons through the interplay of trapping, loading, and dephasing. Other experiments and simulations are also underway to control injection of particles into the wake, and hence improve beam quality and stability further

  10. Coherent multimoded dielectric wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Power, J.

    1998-01-01

    There has recently been a study of the potential uses of multimode dielectric structures for wakefield acceleration [1]. This technique is based on adjusting the wakefield modes of the structure to constructively interfere at certain delays with respect to the drive bunch, thus providing an accelerating gradient enhancement over single mode devices. In this report we examine and attempt to clarify the issues raised by this work in the light of the present state of the art in wakefield acceleration

  11. Laser dynamics in transversely inhomogeneous plasma and its relevance to wakefield acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pathak, V. B.; Vieira, J.; Silva, L. O.; Nam, Chang Hee

    2018-05-01

    We present full set of coupled equations describing the weakly relativistic dynamics of a laser in a plasma with transverse inhomogeneity. We apply variational principle approach to obtain these coupled equations governing laser spot-size, transverse wavenumber, curvature, transverse centroid, etc. We observe that such plasma inhomogeneity can lead to stronger self-focusing. We further discuss the guiding conditions of laser in parabolic plasma channels. With the help of multi-dimensional particle in cell simulations the study is extended to the blowout regime of laser wakefield acceleration to show laser as well as self-injected electron bunch steering in plasma to generate unconventional particle trajectories. Our simulation results demonstrate that such transverse inhomogeneities due to asymmetric self focusing lead to asymmetric bubble excitation, thus inducing off-axis self-injection.

  12. Recent progress on laser acceleration research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakajima, Kazuhisa; Dewa, Hideki; Hosokai, Tomonao; Kanazawa, Shuhei; Kando, Masaki; Kondoh, Shuji; Kotaki, Hideyuki

    2000-01-01

    Recently there has been a tremendous experimental progress in ultrahigh field particle acceleration driven by ultraintense laser pulses in plasmas. A design of the laser wakefield accelerators aiming at GeV energy gains is discussed by presenting our recent progress on the laser wakefield acceleration experiments, the developments of high quality electron beam injectors and the capillary plasma waveguide for optical guiding of ultrashort intense laser pulses. (author)

  13. Laser-plasma accelerators, acceleration of particles through laser-matter interaction at ultra-high intensity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lefebvre, E.

    2010-01-01

    This series of slides overviews the development of powerful lasers for inertial confinement fusion (Icf) at NIF (National Ignition Facility, Usa) and LMJ (Laser Megajoule, France) facilities. Then the principle of laser wakefield acceleration is presented and the possibility of designing compact accelerators delivering 200 GeV/m while conventional RF accelerators reach only 50 MeV/m, is considered. This technical breakthrough will bring important gains in terms of size, cost and new uses for accelerators. While Icf will use nanosecond (10 -9 s) laser pulses, wakefield accelerators will use femtosecond (10 -15 s) laser pulses which means more power but less energy. The electrons accelerated by laser can produce a multi-MeV X radiation useful for industrial radiography or cancer treatment. (A.C.)

  14. A bremsstrahlung gamma-ray source based on stable ionization injection of electrons into a laser wakefield accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Döpp, A., E-mail: andreas.doepp@polytechnique.edu [LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau Cedex (France); Centro de Laseres Pulsados, Parque Cientfico, 37185 Villamayor, Salamanca (Spain); Guillaume, E.; Thaury, C.; Lifschitz, A. [LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau Cedex (France); Sylla, F. [SourceLAB SAS, 86 rue de Paris, 91400 Orsay (France); Goddet, J-P.; Tafzi, A.; Iaquanello, G.; Lefrou, T.; Rousseau, P. [LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau Cedex (France); Conejero, E.; Ruiz, C. [Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de laMerced s/n, 37008 Salamanca (Spain); Ta Phuoc, K.; Malka, V. [LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau Cedex (France)

    2016-09-11

    Laser wakefield acceleration permits the generation of ultra-short, high-brightness relativistic electron beams on a millimeter scale. While those features are of interest for many applications, the source remains constraint by the poor stability of the electron injection process. Here we present results on injection and acceleration of electrons in pure nitrogen and argon. We observe stable, continuous ionization-induced injection of electrons into the wakefield for laser powers exceeding a threshold of 7 TW. The beam charge scales approximately with the laser energy and is limited by beam loading. For 40 TW laser pulses we measure a maximum charge of almost 1 nC per shot, originating mostly from electrons of less than 10 MeV energy. The relatively low energy, the high charge and its stability make this source well-suited for applications such as non-destructive testing. Hence, we demonstrate the production of energetic radiation via bremsstrahlung conversion at 1 Hz repetition rate. In accordance with GEANT4 Monte-Carlo simulations, we measure a γ-ray source size of less than 100 μm for a 0.5 mm tantalum converter placed at 2 mm from the accelerator exit. Furthermore we present radiographs of image quality indicators.

  15. Laser acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tajima, T.; Nakajima, K.; Mourou, G.

    2017-02-01

    The fundamental idea of Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA) is reviewed. An ultrafast intense laser pulse drives coherent wakefield with a relativistic amplitude robustly supported by the plasma. While the large amplitude of wakefields involves collective resonant oscillations of the eigenmode of the entire plasma electrons, the wake phase velocity ˜ c and ultrafastness of the laser pulse introduce the wake stability and rigidity. A large number of worldwide experiments show a rapid progress of this concept realization toward both the high-energy accelerator prospect and broad applications. The strong interest in this has been spurring and stimulating novel laser technologies, including the Chirped Pulse Amplification, the Thin Film Compression, the Coherent Amplification Network, and the Relativistic Mirror Compression. These in turn have created a conglomerate of novel science and technology with LWFA to form a new genre of high field science with many parameters of merit in this field increasing exponentially lately. This science has triggered a number of worldwide research centers and initiatives. Associated physics of ion acceleration, X-ray generation, and astrophysical processes of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are reviewed. Applications such as X-ray free electron laser, cancer therapy, and radioisotope production etc. are considered. A new avenue of LWFA using nanomaterials is also emerging.

  16. Photon acceleration versus frequency-domain interferometry for laser wakefield diagnostics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dias, J M; Oliveira e Silva, L; Mendonca, J T [GoLP/Centro de Fisica de Plasmas, Inst. Superior Tecnico, Lisbon (Portugal)

    1998-03-01

    A detailed comparison between the photon acceleration diagnostic technique and the frequency-domain interferometric technique for laser wakefield diagnostics, by using ray-tracing equations is presented here. The dispersion effects on the probe beam and the implications of an arbitrary phase velocity of the plasma wave are discussed for both diagnostic techniques. In the presence of large amplitude plasma wave and long interaction distances significant frequency shifts can be observed. The importance of this effect on the determination of the phase and frequency shifts measurements given by each of the two diagnostic techniques, is also analyzed. The accuracy of both diagnostic techniques is discussed and some of their technical problems are reviewed. (author)

  17. Proton-driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2012-01-01

    The construction of ever larger and costlier accelerator facilities has a limited future, and new technologies will be needed to push the energy frontier. Plasma wakefield acceleration is a rapidly developing field and is a promising candidate technology for future high energy colliders. We focus on the recently proposed idea of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration and describe the current status and plans for this approach.

  18. Optimization And Single-Shot Characterization Of Ultrashort Thz Pulses From A Laser Wakefield Accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Plateau, G.R.; Matlis, N.H.; van Tilborg, J.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Toth, Cs.; Schroeder, C.B.; Leemans, W.P.

    2009-01-01

    We present spatiotemporal characterization of μJ-class ultrashort THz pulses generated from a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA). Accelerated electrons, resulting from the interaction of a high-intensity laser pulse with a plasma, emit high-intensity THz pulses as coherent transition radiation. Such high peak-power THz pulses, suitable for high-field (MV/cm) pump-probe experiments, also provide a non-invasive bunch-length diagnostic and thus feedback for the accelerator. The characterization of the THz pulses includes energy measurement using a Golay cell, 2D sign-resolved electro-optic measurement and single-shot spatiotemporal electric-field distribution retrieval using a new technique, coined temporal electric-field cross-Correlation (TEX). All three techniques corroborate THz pulses of ∼ 5 μJ, with peak fields of 100's of kV/cm and ∼ 0.4 ps rms duration.

  19. Planned Enhanced Wakefield Transformer Ratio Experiment at Argonne Wakefield Accelerator

    CERN Document Server

    Kanareykin, Alex; Gai, Wei; Jing, Chunguang; Konecny, Richard; Power, John G

    2005-01-01

    In this paper, we present a preliminary experimental study of a wakefield accelerating scheme that uses a carefully spaced and current ramped electron pulse train to produce wakefields that increases the transformer ratio much higher than 2. A dielectric structure was designed and fabricated to operate at 13.625 GHz with dielectric constant of 15.7. The structure will be initially excited by two beams with first and second beam charge ratio of 1:3. The expected transformer ratio is 3 and the setup can be easily extend to 4 pulses which leads to a transformer ratio of more than 6. The dielectric structure cold test results show the tube is within the specification. A set of laser splitters was also tested to produce ramped bunch train of 2 - 4 pulses. Overall design of the experiment and initial results will be presented.

  20. Study of ultra-high gradient wakefield excitation by intense ultrashort laser pulses in plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotaki, Hideyuki

    2002-12-01

    We investigate a mechanism of nonlinear phenomena in laser-plasma interaction, a laser wakefield excited by intense laser pulses, and the possibility of generating an intense bright electron source by an intense laser pulse. We need to understand and further employ some of these phenomena for our purposes. We measure self-focusing, filamentation, and the anomalous blueshift of the laser pulse. The ionization of gas with the self-focusing causes a broad continuous spectrum with blueshift. The normal blueshift depends on the laser intensity and the plasma density. We, however, have found different phenomenon. The laser spectrum shifts to fixed wavelength independent of the laser power and gas pressure above some critical power. We call the phenomenon 'anomalous blueshift'. The results are explained by the formation of filaments. An intense laser pulse can excite a laser wakefield in plasma. The coherent wakefield excited by 2 TW, 50 fs laser pulses in a gas-jet plasma around 10 18 cm -3 is measured with a time-resolved frequency domain interferometer (FDI). The density distribution of the helium gas is measured with a time-resolved Mach-Zehnder interferometer to search for the optimum laser focus position and timing in the gas-jet. The results show an accelerating wakefield excitation of 20 GeV/m with good coherency, which is useful for ultrahigh gradient particle acceleration in a compact system. This is the first time-resolved measurement of laser wakefield excitation in a gas-jet plasma. The experimental results are compared with a Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulation. The pump-probe interferometer system of FDI and the anomalous blueshift will be modified to the optical injection system as a relativistic electron beam injector. In 1D PIC simulation we obtain the results of high quality intense electron beam acceleration. These results illuminate the possibility of a high energy and a high quality electron beam acceleration. (author)

  1. Beyond injection: Trojan horse underdense photocathode plasma wakefield acceleration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hidding, B.; Rosenzweig, J. B.; Xi, Y.; O' Shea, B.; Andonian, G.; Schiller, D.; Barber, S.; Williams, O.; Pretzler, G.; Koenigstein, T.; Kleeschulte, F.; Hogan, M. J.; Litos, M.; Corde, S.; White, W. W.; Muggli, P.; Bruhwiler, D. L.; Lotov, K. [Institut fuer Laser- und Plasmaphysik, Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf 40225 Duesseldorf (Germany) and Particle Beam Physics Laboratory, Department for Physics and Astronomy, UCLA (United States); Particle Beam Physics Laboratory, Department for Physics and Astronomy, UCLA (United States); Institut fuer Laser- und Plasmaphysik, Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf 40225 Duesseldorf (Germany); Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (United States); Max-Planck-Institut fuer Physik, Muenchen (Germany); Tech-X Corporation, Boulder, Colorado (United States) and 1348 Redwood Ave., Boulder, Colorado 80304 (United States); Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, 630090, Novosibirsk (Russian Federation) and Novosibirsk State University, 630090, Novosibirsk (Russian Federation)

    2012-12-21

    An overview on the underlying principles of the hybrid plasma wakefield acceleration scheme dubbed 'Trojan Horse' acceleration is given. The concept is based on laser-controlled release of electrons directly into a particle-beam-driven plasma blowout, paving the way for controlled, shapeable electron bunches with ultralow emittance and ultrahigh brightness. Combining the virtues of a low-ionization-threshold underdense photocathode with the GV/m-scale electric fields of a practically dephasing-free beam-driven plasma blowout, this constitutes a 4th generation electron acceleration scheme. It is applicable as a beam brightness transformer for electron bunches from LWFA and PWFA systems alike. At FACET, the proof-of-concept experiment 'E-210: Trojan Horse Plasma Wakefield Acceleration' has recently been approved and is in preparation. At the same time, various LWFA facilities are currently considered to host experiments aiming at stabilizing and boosting the electron bunch output quality via a trojan horse afterburner stage. Since normalized emittance and brightness can be improved by many orders of magnitude, the scheme is an ideal candidate for light sources such as free-electron-lasers and those based on Thomson scattering and betatron radiation alike.

  2. On the properties of synchrotron-like X-ray emission from laser wakefield accelerated electron beams

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGuffey, C.; Schumaker, W.; Matsuoka, T.; Chvykov, V.; Dollar, F.; Kalintchenko, G.; Kneip, S.; Najmudin, Z.; Mangles, S. P. D.; Vargas, M.; Yanovsky, V.; Maksimchuk, A.; Thomas, A. G. R.; Krushelnick, K.

    2018-04-01

    The electric and magnetic fields responsible for electron acceleration in a Laser Wakefield Accelerator (LWFA) also cause electrons to radiate x-ray photons. Such x-ray pulses have several desirable properties including short duration and being well collimated with tunable high energy. We measure the scaling of this x-ray source experimentally up to laser powers greater than 100 TW. An increase in laser power allows electron trapping at a lower density as well as with an increased trapped charge. These effects resulted in an x-ray fluence that was measured to increase non-linearly with laser power. The fluence of x-rays was also compared with that produced from K-α emission resulting from a solid target interaction for the same energy laser pulse. The flux was shown to be comparable, but the LWFA x-rays had a significantly smaller source size. This indicates that such a source may be useful as a backlighter for probing high energy density plasmas with ultrafast temporal resolution.

  3. Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Update '92

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosing, M.; Balka, L.; Chojnacki, E.; Gai, W.; Ho, C.; Konecny, R.; Power, J.; Schoessow, P.; Simpson, J.

    1992-01-01

    The Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) is an experiment designed to test various ideas related to wakefield technology. Construction is now underway for a 100 nC electron beam in December of 1992. This report updates this progress

  4. Temporal dynamics of the longitudinal bunch profile in a laser wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heigoldt, Matthias

    2017-01-01

    This thesis deals with the temporal characterisation of electron bunches produced by a laser plasma accelerator. In the so-called laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) scheme, an ultra-short high-intensity laser pulse excites a plasma wave, which can sustain accelerating electric fields of several hundred GV/m, thus exceeding the fields attainable by current state-of-the-art radio frequency (RF) accelerators by four orders of magnitude, offering the prospect of downsizing both the size and cost of such machines. Furthermore, by intrinsically confining the accelerated electron beam to the μm-scale size of the plasma wave, LWFAs provide ultra-short and highly brilliant beams, sparking great scientific interest for their application as a driver for compact sources of ultra-short X-ray pulses, e.g. Thomson-scattering, betatron sources or table-top free-electron lasers (FELs). The bunch profile is an important quantity for the application of these sources. With particular regard to the envisioned table-top FELs, it also determines the available peak current, an import input parameter for an appropriate undulator design that is optimized to support the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) process. The experiments presented in this thesis comprise the measurement of the temporal profile of electron bunches produced by LWFA and further investigation of the evolution of the temporal profile in dependence of the acceleration distance and the plasma density. By measuring the intensity spectrum of coherent transition radiation (CTR) emitted by LWFA-driven electron bunches in the frequency domain, the experiments allow a reconstruction of the longitudinal bunch profiles with unprecedented resolution. Compared to earlier work, a key improvement is the single-shot coverage of a broadband spectral range of more than four octaves, which yields a time resolution of the reconstructed bunch profile in the sub-femtosecond region. This work further inspired the development of a new

  5. Temporal dynamics of the longitudinal bunch profile in a laser wakefield accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heigoldt, Matthias

    2017-05-19

    This thesis deals with the temporal characterisation of electron bunches produced by a laser plasma accelerator. In the so-called laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) scheme, an ultra-short high-intensity laser pulse excites a plasma wave, which can sustain accelerating electric fields of several hundred GV/m, thus exceeding the fields attainable by current state-of-the-art radio frequency (RF) accelerators by four orders of magnitude, offering the prospect of downsizing both the size and cost of such machines. Furthermore, by intrinsically confining the accelerated electron beam to the μm-scale size of the plasma wave, LWFAs provide ultra-short and highly brilliant beams, sparking great scientific interest for their application as a driver for compact sources of ultra-short X-ray pulses, e.g. Thomson-scattering, betatron sources or table-top free-electron lasers (FELs). The bunch profile is an important quantity for the application of these sources. With particular regard to the envisioned table-top FELs, it also determines the available peak current, an import input parameter for an appropriate undulator design that is optimized to support the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) process. The experiments presented in this thesis comprise the measurement of the temporal profile of electron bunches produced by LWFA and further investigation of the evolution of the temporal profile in dependence of the acceleration distance and the plasma density. By measuring the intensity spectrum of coherent transition radiation (CTR) emitted by LWFA-driven electron bunches in the frequency domain, the experiments allow a reconstruction of the longitudinal bunch profiles with unprecedented resolution. Compared to earlier work, a key improvement is the single-shot coverage of a broadband spectral range of more than four octaves, which yields a time resolution of the reconstructed bunch profile in the sub-femtosecond region. This work further inspired the development of a new

  6. Analytical model for electromagnetic radiation from a wakefield excited by intense short laser pulses in an unmagnetized plasma

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chen Ziyu; Chen Shi; Dan Jiakun; Li Jianfeng; Peng Qixian, E-mail: ziyuch@gmail.com [Institute of Fluid Physics, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900 (China)

    2011-10-15

    A simple one-dimensional analytical model for electromagnetic emission from an unmagnetized wakefield excited by an intense short-pulse laser in the nonlinear regime has been developed in this paper. The expressions for the spectral and angular distributions of the radiation have been derived. The model suggests that the origin of the radiation can be attributed to the violent sudden acceleration of plasma electrons experiencing the accelerating potential of the laser wakefield. The radiation process could help to provide a qualitative interpretation of existing experimental results, and offers useful information for future laser wakefield experiments.

  7. Analytical model for electromagnetic radiation from a wakefield excited by intense short laser pulses in an unmagnetized plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen Ziyu; Chen Shi; Dan Jiakun; Li Jianfeng; Peng Qixian

    2011-01-01

    A simple one-dimensional analytical model for electromagnetic emission from an unmagnetized wakefield excited by an intense short-pulse laser in the nonlinear regime has been developed in this paper. The expressions for the spectral and angular distributions of the radiation have been derived. The model suggests that the origin of the radiation can be attributed to the violent sudden acceleration of plasma electrons experiencing the accelerating potential of the laser wakefield. The radiation process could help to provide a qualitative interpretation of existing experimental results, and offers useful information for future laser wakefield experiments.

  8. Automatic Beam Path Analysis of Laser Wakefield Particle Acceleration Data

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rubel, Oliver; Geddes, Cameron G.R.; Cormier-Michel, Estelle; Wu, Kesheng; Prabhat,; Weber, Gunther H.; Ushizima, Daniela M.; Messmer, Peter; Hagen, Hans; Hamann, Bernd; Bethel, E. Wes

    2009-10-19

    Numerical simulations of laser wakefield particle accelerators play a key role in the understanding of the complex acceleration process and in the design of expensive experimental facilities. As the size and complexity of simulation output grows, an increasingly acute challenge is the practical need for computational techniques that aid in scientific knowledge discovery. To that end, we present a set of data-understanding algorithms that work in concert in a pipeline fashion to automatically locate and analyze high energy particle bunches undergoing acceleration in very large simulation datasets. These techniques work cooperatively by first identifying features of interest in individual timesteps, then integrating features across timesteps, and based on the information derived perform analysis of temporally dynamic features. This combination of techniques supports accurate detection of particle beams enabling a deeper level of scientific understanding of physical phenomena than hasbeen possible before. By combining efficient data analysis algorithms and state-of-the-art data management we enable high-performance analysis of extremely large particle datasets in 3D. We demonstrate the usefulness of our methods for a variety of 2D and 3D datasets and discuss the performance of our analysis pipeline.

  9. Acceleration of a trailing positron bunch in a plasma wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doche, A.; Beekman, C.; Corde, S.

    2017-01-01

    High gradients of energy gain and high energy efficiency are necessary parameters for compact, cost-efficient and high-energy particle colliders. Plasma Wakefield Accelerators (PWFA) offer both, making them attractive candidates for next-generation colliders. Here in these devices, a charge-density plasma wave is excited by an ultra-relativistic bunch of charged particles (the drive bunch). The energy in the wave can be extracted by a second bunch (the trailing bunch), as this bunch propagates in the wake of the drive bunch. While a trailing electron bunch was accelerated in a plasma with more than a gigaelectronvolt of energy gain, accelerating a trailing positron bunch in a plasma is much more challenging as the plasma response can be asymmetric for positrons and electrons. We report the demonstration of the energy gain by a distinct trailing positron bunch in a plasma wakefield accelerator, spanning nonlinear to quasi-linear regimes, and unveil the beam loading process underlying the accelerator energy efficiency. A positron bunch is used to drive the plasma wake in the experiment, though the quasi-linear wake structure could as easily be formed by an electron bunch or a laser driver. Finally, the results thus mark the first acceleration of a distinct positron bunch in plasma-based particle accelerators.

  10. Dielectric Wakefield Accelerator to drive the future FEL Light Source.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jing, C.; Power, J.; Zholents, A. (Accelerator Systems Division (APS)); ( HEP); (LLC)

    2011-04-20

    X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) are expensive instruments and a large part of the cost of the entire facility is driven by the accelerator. Using a high-energy gain dielectric wake-field accelerator (DWA) instead of the conventional accelerator may provide a significant cost saving and reduction of the facility size. In this article, we investigate using a collinear dielectric wakefield accelerator to provide a high repetition rate, high current, high energy beam to drive a future FEL x-ray light source. As an initial case study, a {approx}100 MV/m loaded gradient, 850 GHz quartz dielectric based 2-stage, wakefield accelerator is proposed to generate a main electron beam of 8 GeV, 50 pC/bunch, {approx}1.2 kA of peak current, 10 x 10 kHz (10 beamlines) in just 100 meters with the fill factor and beam loading considered. This scheme provides 10 parallel main beams with one 100 kHz drive beam. A drive-to-main beam efficiency {approx}38.5% can be achieved with an advanced transformer ratio enhancement technique. rf power dissipation in the structure is only 5 W/cm{sup 2} in the high repetition rate, high gradient operation mode, which is in the range of advanced water cooling capability. Details of study presented in the article include the overall layout, the transform ratio enhancement scheme used to increase the drive to main beam efficiency, main wakefield linac design, cooling of the structure, etc.

  11. High-energy coherent terahertz radiation emitted by wide-angle electron beams from a laser-wakefield accelerator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Xue; Brunetti, Enrico; Jaroszynski, Dino A.

    2018-04-01

    High-charge electron beams produced by laser-wakefield accelerators are potentially novel, scalable sources of high-power terahertz radiation suitable for applications requiring high-intensity fields. When an intense laser pulse propagates in underdense plasma, it can generate femtosecond duration, self-injected picocoulomb electron bunches that accelerate on-axis to energies from 10s of MeV to several GeV, depending on laser intensity and plasma density. The process leading to the formation of the accelerating structure also generates non-injected, sub-picosecond duration, 1–2 MeV nanocoulomb electron beams emitted obliquely into a hollow cone around the laser propagation axis. These wide-angle beams are stable and depend weakly on laser and plasma parameters. Here we perform simulations to characterise the coherent transition radiation emitted by these beams if passed through a thin metal foil, or directly at the plasma–vacuum interface, showing that coherent terahertz radiation with 10s μJ to mJ-level energy can be produced with an optical to terahertz conversion efficiency up to 10‑4–10‑3.

  12. Application of High-performance Visual Analysis Methods to Laser Wakefield Particle Acceleration Data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rubel, Oliver; Prabhat, Mr.; Wu, Kesheng; Childs, Hank; Meredith, Jeremy; Geddes, Cameron G.R.; Cormier-Michel, Estelle; Ahern, Sean; Weber, Gunther H.; Messmer, Peter; Hagen, Hans; Hamann, Bernd; Bethel, E. Wes

    2008-01-01

    Our work combines and extends techniques from high-performance scientific data management and visualization to enable scientific researchers to gain insight from extremely large, complex, time-varying laser wakefield particle accelerator simulation data. We extend histogram-based parallel coordinates for use in visual information display as well as an interface for guiding and performing data mining operations, which are based upon multi-dimensional and temporal thresholding and data subsetting operations. To achieve very high performance on parallel computing platforms, we leverage FastBit, a state-of-the-art index/query technology, to accelerate data mining and multi-dimensional histogram computation. We show how these techniques are used in practice by scientific researchers to identify, visualize and analyze a particle beam in a large, time-varying dataset

  13. Transverse wakefield effects in the two-beam accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Selph, F.; Sessler, A.

    1986-01-01

    Transverse wakefield effects in the high-gradient accelerating structure of the two-beam accelerator (TBA) are analyzed theoretically using three different models. The first is a very simple two-particle model, the second is for a beam with uniform charge distribution, constant betatron wavelength, and a linear wake approximation. Both of these models give analytic scaling laws. The third model has a Gaussian beam (represented by 11 superparticles), energy variation across the bunch, acceleration, variation of betatron focusing with energy, and variation of the wakefield from linearity. The three models are compared, and the third model is used to explore the wakefield effects when accelerator parameters such as energy, energy spread, injection energy, accelerating gradient, and betatron wavelength are varied. Also explored are the sensitivity of the beam to the wakefield profile to the longitudinal charge distribution. Finally, in consideration of wakefield effects, possible parameters of a TBA are presented. (orig./HSI)

  14. Near-GeV-energy laser-wakefield acceleration of self-injected electrons in a centimeter-scale plasma channel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tsung, F.S.; Narang, Ritesh; Joshi, C.; Mori, W. B.; Fonseca, R. A.; Silva, L.O.

    2004-01-01

    The first three-dimensional, particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of laser-wakefield acceleration of self-injected electrons in a 0.84 cm long plasma channel are reported. The frequency evolution of the initially 50 fs (FWHM) long laser pulse by photon interaction with the wake followed by plasma dispersion enhances the wake which eventually leads to self-injection of electrons from the channel wall. This first bunch of electrons remains spatially highly localized. Its phase space rotation due to slippage with respect to the wake leads to a monoenergetic bunch of electrons with a central energy of 0.26 GeV after 0.55 cm propagation. At later times, spatial bunching of the laser enhances the acceleration of a second bunch of electrons to energies up to 0.84 GeV before the laser pulse intensity is significantly reduced

  15. Simulation study of the sub-terawatt laser wakefield acceleration operated in self-modulated regime

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsieh, C.-Y.; Lin, M.-W.; Chen, S.-H.

    2018-02-01

    Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) can be accomplished by introducing a sub-terawatt (TW) laser pulse into a thin, high-density gas target. In this way, the self-focusing effect and the self-modulation that happened on the laser pulse produce a greatly enhanced laser peak intensity that can drive a nonlinear plasma wave to accelerate electrons. A particle-in-cell model is developed to study sub-TW LWFA when a 0.6-TW laser pulse interacts with a dense hydrogen plasma. Gas targets having a Gaussian density profile or a flat-top distribution are defined for investigating the properties of sub-TW LWFA when conducting with a gas jet or a gas cell. In addition to using 800-nm laser pulses, simulations are performed with 1030-nm laser pulses, as they represent a viable approach to realize the sub-TW LWFA driven by high-frequency, diode-pumped laser systems. The peak density which allows the laser peak power PL˜2 Pc r of self-focusing critical power is favourable for conducting sub-TW LWFA. Otherwise, an excessively high peak density can induce an undesired filament effect which rapidly disintegrates the laser field envelope and violates the process of plasma wave excitation. The plateau region of a flat-top density distribution allows the self-focusing and the self-modulation of the laser pulse to develop, from which well-established plasma bubbles can be produced to accelerate electrons. The process of electron injection is complicated in such high-density plasma conditions; however, increasing the length of the plateau region represents a straightforward method to realize the injection and acceleration of electrons within the first bubble, such that an improved LWFA performance can be accomplished.

  16. Progress of Laser-Driven Plasma Accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakajima, Kazuhisa

    2007-01-01

    There is a great interest worldwide in plasma accelerators driven by ultra-intense lasers which make it possible to generate ultra-high gradient acceleration and high quality particle beams in a much more compact size compared with conventional accelerators. A frontier research on laser and plasma accelerators is focused on high energy electron acceleration and ultra-short X-ray and Tera Hertz radiations as their applications. These achievements will provide not only a wide range of sciences with benefits of a table-top accelerator but also a basic science with a tool of ultrahigh energy accelerators probing an unknown extremely microscopic world.Harnessing the recent advance of ultra-intense ultra-short pulse lasers, the worldwide research has made a tremendous breakthrough in demonstrating high-energy high-quality particle beams in a compact scale, so called ''dream beams on a table top'', which represents monoenergetic electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators and GeV acceleration by capillary plasma-channel laser wakefield accelerators. This lecture reviews recent progress of results on laser-driven plasma based accelerator experiments to quest for particle acceleration physics in intense laser-plasma interactions and to present new outlook for the GeV-range high-energy laser plasma accelerators

  17. Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration: a path to the future of high-energy particle physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Assmann, R; Gross, M; Bingham, R; Holloway, J; Bohl, T; Bracco, C; Butterworth, A; Feldbaumer, E; Goddard, B; Gschwendtner, E; Buttenschön, B; Caldwell, A; Chattopadhyay, S; Cipiccia, S; Jaroszynski, D; Fonseca, R A; Grulke, O; Kempkes, P; Huang, C; Jolly, S

    2014-01-01

    New acceleration technology is mandatory for the future elucidation of fundamental particles and their interactions. A promising approach is to exploit the properties of plasmas. Past research has focused on creating large-amplitude plasma waves by injecting an intense laser pulse or an electron bunch into the plasma. However, the maximum energy gain of electrons accelerated in a single plasma stage is limited by the energy of the driver. Proton bunches are the most promising drivers of wakefields to accelerate electrons to the TeV energy scale in a single stage. An experimental program at CERN—the AWAKE experiment—has been launched to study in detail the important physical processes and to demonstrate the power of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. Here we review the physical principles and some experimental considerations for a future proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerator. (paper)

  18. Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration: a path to the future of high-energy particle physics

    CERN Document Server

    Assmann, R.; Bohl, T.; Bracco, C.; Buttenschon, B.; Butterworth, A.; Caldwell, A.; Chattopadhyay, S.; Cipiccia, S.; Feldbaumer, E.; Fonseca, R.A.; Goddard, B.; Gross, M.; Grulke, O.; Gschwendtner, E.; Holloway, J.; Huang, C.; Jaroszynski, D.; Jolly, S.; Kempkes, P.; Lopes, N.; Lotov, K.; Machacek, J.; Mandry, S.R.; McKenzie, J.W.; Meddahi, M.; Militsyn, B.L.; Moschuering, N.; Muggli, P.; Najmudin, Z.; Noakes, T.C.Q.; Norreys, P.A.; Oz, E.; Pardons, A.; Petrenko, A.; Pukhov, A.; Rieger, K.; Reimann, O.; Ruhl, H.; Shaposhnikova, E.; Silva, L.O.; Sosedkin, A.; Tarkeshian, R.; Trines, R.M.G.N.; Tuckmantel, T.; Vieira, J.; Vincke, H.; Wing, M.; Xia, G.

    2014-01-01

    New acceleration technology is mandatory for the future elucidation of fundamental particles and their interactions. A promising approach is to exploit the properties of plasmas. Past research has focused on creating large-amplitude plasma waves by injecting an intense laser pulse or an electron bunch into the plasma. However, the maximum energy gain of electrons accelerated in a single plasma stage is limited by the energy of the driver. Proton bunches are the most promising drivers of wakefields to accelerate electrons to the TeV energy scale in a single stage. An experimental program at CERN -- the AWAKE experiment -- has been launched to study in detail the important physical processes and to demonstrate the power of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. Here we review the physical principles and some experimental considerations for a future proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerator.

  19. Laser acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tajima, T.; Nakajima, K.; Mourou, G.

    2017-01-01

    The fundamental idea of LaserWakefield Acceleration (LWFA) is reviewed. An ultrafast intense laser pulse drives coherent wakefield with a relativistic amplitude robustly supported by the plasma. While the large amplitude of wake fields involves collective resonant oscillations of the eigenmode of the entire plasma electrons, the wake phase velocity ∼ c and ultra fastness of the laser pulse introduce the wake stability and rigidity. A large number of worldwide experiments show a rapid progress of this concept realization toward both the high-energy accelerator prospect and broad applications. The strong interest in this has been spurring and stimulating novel laser technologies, including the Chirped Pulse Amplification, the Thin Film Compression, the Coherent Amplification Network, and the Relativistic Mirror Compression. These in turn have created a conglomerate of novel science and technology with LWFA to form a new genre of high field science with many parameters of merit in this field increasing exponentially lately. This science has triggered a number of worldwide research centers and initiatives. Associated physics of ion acceleration, X-ray generation, and astrophysical processes of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are reviewed. Applications such as X-ray free electron laser, cancer therapy, and radioisotope production etc. are considered. A new avenue of LWFA using nano materials is also emerging.

  20. Bubble shape and electromagnetic field in the nonlinear regime for laser wakefield acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, X. F.; Yu, Q.; Huang, S.; Kong, Q.; Gu, Y. J.; Kawata, S.

    2015-01-01

    The electromagnetic field in the electron “bubble” regime for ultra-intense laser wakefield acceleration was solved using the d'Alembert equations. Ignoring the residual electrons, we assume an ellipsoidal bubble forms under ideal conditions, with bubble velocity equal to the speed of light in vacuum. The general solution for bubble shape and electromagnetic field were obtained. The results were confirmed in 2.5D PIC (particle-in-cell) simulations. Moreover, slopes for the longitudinal electric field of larger than 0.5 were found in these simulations. With spherical bubbles, this slope is always smaller than or equal to 0.5. This behavior validates the ellipsoid assumption

  1. Colliding pulse injection experiments in non-collinear geometry for controlled laser plasma wakefield acceleration of electrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toth, Carl B.; Esarey, Eric H.; Geddes, Cameron G.R.; Leemans, Wim P.; Nakamura, Kei; Panasenko, Dmitriy; Schroeder, Carl B.; Bruhwiler, D.; Cary, J.R.

    2007-01-01

    An optical injection scheme for a laser-plasma based accelerator which employs a non-collinear counter-propagating laser beam to push background electrons in the focusing and acceleration phase via ponderomotive beat with the trailing part of the wakefield driver pulse is discussed. Preliminary experiments were performed using a drive beam of a 0 = 2.6 and colliding beam of a 1 = 0.8 both focused on the middle of a 200 mu m slit jet backed with 20 bar, which provided ∼ 260 mu m long gas plume. The enhancement in the total charge by the colliding pulse was observed with sharp dependence on the delay time of the colliding beam. Enhancement of the neutron yield was also measured, which suggests a generation of electrons above 10 MeV

  2. Experimental Evidence of Radiation Reaction in the Collision of a High-Intensity Laser Pulse with a Laser-Wakefield Accelerated Electron Beam

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cole, J. M.; Behm, K. T.; Gerstmayr, E.; Blackburn, T. G.; Wood, J. C.; Baird, C. D.; Duff, M. J.; Harvey, C.; Ilderton, A.; Joglekar, A. S.; Krushelnick, K.; Kuschel, S.; Marklund, M.; McKenna, P.; Murphy, C. D.; Poder, K.; Ridgers, C. P.; Samarin, G. M.; Sarri, G.; Symes, D. R.; Thomas, A. G. R.; Warwick, J.; Zepf, M.; Najmudin, Z.; Mangles, S. P. D.

    2018-02-01

    The dynamics of energetic particles in strong electromagnetic fields can be heavily influenced by the energy loss arising from the emission of radiation during acceleration, known as radiation reaction. When interacting with a high-energy electron beam, today's lasers are sufficiently intense to explore the transition between the classical and quantum radiation reaction regimes. We present evidence of radiation reaction in the collision of an ultrarelativistic electron beam generated by laser-wakefield acceleration (ɛ >500 MeV ) with an intense laser pulse (a0>10 ). We measure an energy loss in the postcollision electron spectrum that is correlated with the detected signal of hard photons (γ rays), consistent with a quantum description of radiation reaction. The generated γ rays have the highest energies yet reported from an all-optical inverse Compton scattering scheme, with critical energy ɛcrit>30 MeV .

  3. Notes on Laser Acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tajima, T.

    2008-01-01

    This note intends to motivate our effort toward the advent of new methods of particle acceleration, utilizing the fast rising laser technology. By illustrating the underlying principles in an intuitive manner and thus less jargon-clad fashion, we seek a direction in which we shall be able to properly control and harness the promise of laser acceleration. First we review the idea behind the laser wakefield. We then go on to examine ion acceleration by laser. We examine the sheath acceleration in particular and look for the future direction that allows orderly acceleration of ions in high energies

  4. Electron acceleration by femtosecond laser interaction with micro-structured plasmas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goers, Andy James

    Laser-driven accelerators are a promising and compact alternative to RF accelerator technology for generating relativistic electron bunches for medical, scientific, and security applications. This dissertation presents three experiments using structured plasmas designed to advance the state of the art in laser-based electron accelerators, with the goal of reducing the energy of the drive laser pulse and enabling higher repetition rate operation with current laser technology. First, electron acceleration by intense femtosecond laser pulses in He-like nitrogen plasma waveguides is demonstrated. Second, significant progress toward a proof of concept realization of quasi-phasematched direct acceleration (QPM-DLA) is presented. Finally, a laser wakefield accelerator at very high plasma density is studied, enabling relativistic electron beam generation with ˜10 mJ pulse energies. Major results from these experiments include: • Acceleration of electrons up to 120 MeV from an ionization injected wakefield accelerator driven in a 1.5 mm long He-like nitrogen plasma waveguide • Guiding of an intense, quasi-radially polarized femtosecond laser pulse in a 1 cm plasma waveguide. This pulse provides a strong drive field for the QPM-DLA concept. • Wakefield acceleration of electrons up to ˜10 MeV with sub-terawatt, ˜10 mJ pulses interacting with a thin (˜200 mum), high density (>1020 cm-3) plasma. • Observation of an intense, coherent, broadband wave breaking radiation flash from a high plasma density laser wakefield accelerator. The flash radiates > 1% of the drive laser pulse energy in a bandwidth consistent with half-cycle (˜1 fs) emission from violent unidirectional acceleration of electron bunches from rest. These results open the way to high repetition rate (>˜kHz) laser-driven generation of relativistic electron beams with existing laser technology.

  5. Electron diffraction using ultrafast electron bunches from a laser-wakefield accelerator at kHz repetition rate

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Z.-H.; Thomas, A. G. R.; Beaurepaire, B.; Nees, J. A.; Hou, B.; Malka, V.; Krushelnick, K.; Faure, J.

    2013-02-01

    We show that electron bunches in the 50-100 keV range can be produced from a laser wakefield accelerator using 10 mJ, 35 fs laser pulses operating at 0.5 kHz. It is shown that using a solenoid magnetic lens, the electron bunch distribution can be shaped. The resulting transverse and longitudinal coherence is suitable for producing diffraction images from a polycrystalline 10 nm aluminum foil. The high repetition rate, the stability of the electron source, and the fact that its uncorrelated bunch duration is below 100 fs make this approach promising for the development of sub-100 fs ultrafast electron diffraction experiments.

  6. Electron diffraction using ultrafast electron bunches from a laser-wakefield accelerator at kHz repetition rate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    He, Z.-H.; Thomas, A. G. R.; Nees, J. A.; Hou, B.; Krushelnick, K. [Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-2099 (United States); Beaurepaire, B.; Malka, V.; Faure, J. [Laboratoire d' Optique Appliquee, ENSTA-CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique, UMR 7639, 91761 Palaiseau (France)

    2013-02-11

    We show that electron bunches in the 50-100 keV range can be produced from a laser wakefield accelerator using 10 mJ, 35 fs laser pulses operating at 0.5 kHz. It is shown that using a solenoid magnetic lens, the electron bunch distribution can be shaped. The resulting transverse and longitudinal coherence is suitable for producing diffraction images from a polycrystalline 10 nm aluminum foil. The high repetition rate, the stability of the electron source, and the fact that its uncorrelated bunch duration is below 100 fs make this approach promising for the development of sub-100 fs ultrafast electron diffraction experiments.

  7. Three electron beams from a laser-plasma wakefield accelerator and the energy apportioning question

    CERN Document Server

    Yang, X; Reboredo Gil, David; Welsh, Gregor H; Li, Y.F; Cipiccia, Silvia; Ersfeld, Bernhard; Grant, D. W; Grant, P. A; Islam, Muhammad; Tooley, M.B; Vieux, Gregory; Wiggins, Sally; Sheng, Zheng-Ming; Jaroszynski, Dino

    2017-01-01

    Laser-wakefield accelerators are compact devices capable of delivering ultra-short electron bunches with pC-level charge and MeV-GeV energy by exploiting the ultra-high electric fields arising from the interaction of intense laser pulses with plasma. We show experimentally and through numerical simulations that a high-energy electron beam is produced simultaneously with two stable lowerenergy beams that are ejected in oblique and counter-propagating directions, typically carrying off 5–10% of the initial laser energy. A MeV, 10s nC oblique beam is ejected in a 30°–60° hollow cone, which is filled with more energetic electrons determined by the injection dynamics. A nC-level, 100s keV backward-directed beam is mainly produced at the leading edge of the plasma column. We discuss the apportioning of absorbed laser energy amongst the three beams. Knowledge of the distribution of laser energy and electron beam charge, which determine the overall efficiency, is important for various applications of laser-wake...

  8. Temporal characterization of ultrashort linearly chirped electron bunches generated from a laser wakefield accelerator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. J. Zhang

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available A new method for diagnosing the temporal characteristics of ultrashort electron bunches with linear energy chirp generated from a laser wakefield accelerator is described. When the ionization-injected bunch interacts with the back of the drive laser, it is deflected and stretched along the direction of the electric field of the laser. Upon exiting the plasma, if the bunch goes through a narrow slit in front of the dipole magnet that disperses the electrons in the plane of the laser polarization, it can form a series of bunchlets that have different energies but are separated by half a laser wavelength. Since only the electrons that are undeflected by the laser go through the slit, the energy spectrum of the bunch is modulated. By analyzing the modulated energy spectrum, the shots where the bunch has a linear energy chirp can be recognized. Consequently, the energy chirp and beam current profile of those bunches can be reconstructed. This method is demonstrated through particle-in-cell simulations and experiment.

  9. Pump depletion limited evolution of the relativistic plasma wave-front in a forced laser-wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fang, F; Clayton, C E; Marsh, K A; Pak, A E; Ralph, J E; Joshi, C; Lopes, N C

    2009-01-01

    In a forced laser-wakefield accelerator experiment (Malka et al 2002 Science 298 1596) where the length of the pump laser pulse is a few plasma periods long, the leading edge of the laser pulse undergoes frequency downshifting and head erosion as the laser energy is transferred to the wake. Therefore, after some propagation distance, the group velocity of the leading edge of the pump pulse-and thus of the driven electron plasma wave-will slow down. This can have implications for the dephasing length of the accelerated electrons and therefore needs to be understood experimentally. We have carried out an experimental investigation where we have measured the velocity v f of the 'wave-front' of the plasma wave driven by a nominally 50 fs (full width half maximum), intense (a 0 ≅ 1), 0.815 μm laser pulse. To determine the speed of the wave front, time- and space-resolved refractometry, interferometry and Thomson scattering were used. Although a laser pulse propagating through a relatively low-density plasma (n e = 1.3 x 10 19 cm -3 ) showed no measurable changes in v f over 1.3 mm (and no accelerated electrons), a high-density plasma (n e = 5 x 10 19 cm -3 ) generated accelerated electrons and showed a continuous change in v f as the laser pulse propagated through the plasma. Possible causes and consequences of the observed v f evolution are discussed.

  10. Stable electron beams from laser wakefield acceleration with few-terawatt driver using a supersonic air jet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boháček, K.; Kozlová, M.; Nejdl, J.; Chaulagain, U.; Horný, V.; Krůs, M.; Ta Phuoc, K.

    2018-03-01

    The generation of stable electron beams produced by the laser wakefield acceleration mechanism with a few-terawatt laser system (600 mJ, 50 fs) in a supersonic synthetic air jet is reported and the requirements necessary to build such a stable electron source are experimentally investigated in conditions near the bubble regime threshold. The resulting electron beams have stable energies of (17.4 ± 1.1) MeV and an energy spread of (13.5 ± 1.5) MeV (FWHM), which has been achieved by optimizing the properties of the supersonic gas jet target for the given laser system. Due to the availability of few-terawatt laser systems in many laboratories around the world these stable electron beams open possibilities for applications of this type of particle source.

  11. Increasing the transformer ratio at the Argonne wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Power, J.G.; Conde, M.; Liu, W.; Yusof, Z.; Gai, W.; Jing, C.; Kanareykin, A.

    2011-01-01

    The transformer ratio is defined as the ratio of the maximum energy gain of the witness bunch to the maximum energy loss experienced by the drive bunch (or a bunch within a multidrive bunch train). This plays an important role in the collinear wakefield acceleration scheme. A high transformer ratio is desirable since it leads to a higher overall efficiency under similar conditions (e.g. the same beam loading, the same structure, etc.). One technique to enhance the transformer ratio beyond the ordinary limit of 2 is to use a ramped bunch train. The first experimental demonstration observed a transformer ratio only marginally above 2 due to the mismatch between the drive microbunch length and the frequency of the accelerating structure (C. Jing, A. Kanareykin, J. Power, M. Conde, Z. Yusof, P. Schoessow, and W. Gai, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 144801 (2007)). Recently, we revisited this experiment with an optimized microbunch length using a UV laser stacking technique at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator facility and measured a transformer ratio of 3.4. Measurements and data analysis from these experiments are presented in detail.

  12. The nonlinear CWFA [Cherenkov Wakefield Accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schoessow, P.

    1989-01-01

    The possible use of nonlinear media to enhance the performance of the Cherenkov Wakefield Accelerator (CWFA) is considered. Numerical experiments have been performed using a new wakefield code which demonstrate larger gradients and transformer ratios in the nonlinear CWFA than are obtained in the linear case. 7 refs., 3 figs

  13. Experimental Evidence of Radiation Reaction in the Collision of a High-Intensity Laser Pulse with a Laser-Wakefield Accelerated Electron Beam

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. M. Cole

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The dynamics of energetic particles in strong electromagnetic fields can be heavily influenced by the energy loss arising from the emission of radiation during acceleration, known as radiation reaction. When interacting with a high-energy electron beam, today’s lasers are sufficiently intense to explore the transition between the classical and quantum radiation reaction regimes. We present evidence of radiation reaction in the collision of an ultrarelativistic electron beam generated by laser-wakefield acceleration (ϵ>500  MeV with an intense laser pulse (a_{0}>10. We measure an energy loss in the postcollision electron spectrum that is correlated with the detected signal of hard photons (γ rays, consistent with a quantum description of radiation reaction. The generated γ rays have the highest energies yet reported from an all-optical inverse Compton scattering scheme, with critical energy ϵ_{crit}>30  MeV.

  14. Laser-wakefield accelerators for medical phase contrast imaging: Monte Carlo simulations and experimental studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cipiccia, S.; Reboredo, D.; Vittoria, Fabio A.; Welsh, G. H.; Grant, P.; Grant, D. W.; Brunetti, E.; Wiggins, S. M.; Olivo, A.; Jaroszynski, D. A.

    2015-05-01

    X-ray phase contrast imaging (X-PCi) is a very promising method of dramatically enhancing the contrast of X-ray images of microscopic weakly absorbing objects and soft tissue, which may lead to significant advancement in medical imaging with high-resolution and low-dose. The interest in X-PCi is giving rise to a demand for effective simulation methods. Monte Carlo codes have been proved a valuable tool for studying X-PCi including coherent effects. The laser-plasma wakefield accelerators (LWFA) is a very compact particle accelerator that uses plasma as an accelerating medium. Accelerating gradient in excess of 1 GV/cm can be obtained, which makes them over a thousand times more compact than conventional accelerators. LWFA are also sources of brilliant betatron radiation, which are promising for applications including medical imaging. We present a study that explores the potential of LWFA-based betatron sources for medical X-PCi and investigate its resolution limit using numerical simulations based on the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, and present preliminary experimental results.

  15. Accelerating field step-up transformer in wake-field accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chojnacki, E.; Gai, W.; Schoessow, P.; Simpson, J.

    1991-01-01

    In the wake-field scheme of particle acceleration, a short, intense drive bunch of electrons passes through a slow-wave structure, leaving behind high rf power in its wake field. The axial accelerating electric field associated with the rf can be quite large, > 100 MeV/m, and is used to accelerate a much less intense ''witness'' beam to eventual energies > 1 TeV. The rf power is deposited predominantly in the fundamental mode of the structure, which, for dielectric-lined waveguide as used at Argonne, is the TM 01 mode. In all likelihood on the field amplitude will be limited only by rf breakdown of the dielectric material, the limit of which is currently unknown in the short time duration, high frequency regime of wake-field acceleration operation. To obtain such strong electric fields with given wake-field rf power, the dimensions of the dielectric-lined waveguide have to be fairly small, OD of the order of a cm and ID of a few mm, and this gives rise to the generation of strong deflection modes with beam misalignment. While a scheme exists to damp such deflection modes on a bunch-to-bunch time scale, head-tail beam deflection could still be a problem and BNS damping as well as FODO focusing are incomplete cures. Presented here are details of a scheme by which the rf power is generated by in a large-diameter wake-field tube, where deflection mode generation by the intense drive beam is tolerable, and then fed into a small-diameter acceleration tube where the less intense witness beam is accelerated by the greatly enhanced axial electric field. The witness beam generates little deflection-mode power itself, even in the small acceleration tube, thus a final high-quality, high-energy electron beam is produced

  16. Exploiting multi-scale parallelism for large scale numerical modelling of laser wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fonseca, R A; Vieira, J; Silva, L O; Fiuza, F; Davidson, A; Tsung, F S; Mori, W B

    2013-01-01

    A new generation of laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA), supported by the extreme accelerating fields generated in the interaction of PW-Class lasers and underdense targets, promises the production of high quality electron beams in short distances for multiple applications. Achieving this goal will rely heavily on numerical modelling to further understand the underlying physics and identify optimal regimes, but large scale modelling of these scenarios is computationally heavy and requires the efficient use of state-of-the-art petascale supercomputing systems. We discuss the main difficulties involved in running these simulations and the new developments implemented in the OSIRIS framework to address these issues, ranging from multi-dimensional dynamic load balancing and hybrid distributed/shared memory parallelism to the vectorization of the PIC algorithm. We present the results of the OASCR Joule Metric program on the issue of large scale modelling of LWFA, demonstrating speedups of over 1 order of magnitude on the same hardware. Finally, scalability to over ∼10 6 cores and sustained performance over ∼2 P Flops is demonstrated, opening the way for large scale modelling of LWFA scenarios. (paper)

  17. Pump depletion limited evolution of the relativistic plasma wave-front in a forced laser-wakefield accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fang, F; Clayton, C E; Marsh, K A; Pak, A E; Ralph, J E; Joshi, C [Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States); Lopes, N C [Grupo de Lasers e Plasmas, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon (Portugal)], E-mail: cclayton@ucla.edu

    2009-02-15

    In a forced laser-wakefield accelerator experiment (Malka et al 2002 Science 298 1596) where the length of the pump laser pulse is a few plasma periods long, the leading edge of the laser pulse undergoes frequency downshifting and head erosion as the laser energy is transferred to the wake. Therefore, after some propagation distance, the group velocity of the leading edge of the pump pulse-and thus of the driven electron plasma wave-will slow down. This can have implications for the dephasing length of the accelerated electrons and therefore needs to be understood experimentally. We have carried out an experimental investigation where we have measured the velocity v{sub f} of the 'wave-front' of the plasma wave driven by a nominally 50 fs (full width half maximum), intense (a{sub 0} {approx_equal} 1), 0.815 {mu}m laser pulse. To determine the speed of the wave front, time- and space-resolved refractometry, interferometry and Thomson scattering were used. Although a laser pulse propagating through a relatively low-density plasma (n{sub e} = 1.3 x 10{sup 19} cm{sup -3}) showed no measurable changes in v{sub f} over 1.3 mm (and no accelerated electrons), a high-density plasma (n{sub e} = 5 x 10{sup 19} cm{sup -3}) generated accelerated electrons and showed a continuous change in v{sub f} as the laser pulse propagated through the plasma. Possible causes and consequences of the observed v{sub f} evolution are discussed.

  18. Modeling laser wakefield accelerators in a Lorentz boosted frame

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vay, J.-L.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Cormier-Michel, E.; Grote, D.P.

    2010-09-15

    Modeling of laser-plasma wakefield accelerators in an optimal frame of reference [1] is shown to produce orders of magnitude speed-up of calculations from first principles. Obtaining these speedups requires mitigation of a high frequency instability that otherwise limits effectiveness in addition to solutions for handling data input and output in a relativistically boosted frame of reference. The observed high-frequency instability is mitigated using methods including an electromagnetic solver with tunable coefficients, its extension to accomodate Perfectly Matched Layers and Friedman's damping algorithms, as well as an efficient large bandwidth digital filter. It is shown that choosing theframe of the wake as the frame of reference allows for higher levels of filtering and damping than is possible in other frames for the same accuracy. Detailed testing also revealed serendipitously the existence of a singular time step at which the instability level is minimized, independently of numerical dispersion, thus indicating that the observed instability may not be due primarily to Numerical Cerenkov as has been conjectured. The techniques developed for Cerenkov mitigation prove nonetheless to be very efficient at controlling the instability. Using these techniques, agreement at the percentage level is demonstrated between simulations using different frames of reference, with speedups reaching two orders of magnitude for a 0.1 GeV class stages. The method then allows direct and efficient full-scale modeling of deeply depleted laser-plasma stages of 10 GeV-1 TeV for the first time, verifying the scaling of plasma accelerators to very high energies. Over 4, 5 and 6 orders of magnitude speedup is achieved for the modeling of 10 GeV, 100 GeV and 1 TeV class stages, respectively.

  19. Modeling laser wakefield accelerators in a Lorentz boosted frame

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vay, J.-L.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Cormier-Michel, E.; Grotec, D. P.

    2010-06-15

    Modeling of laser-plasma wakefield accelerators in an optimal frame of reference is shown to produce orders of magnitude speed-up of calculations from first principles. Obtaining these speedups requires mitigation of a high-frequency instability that otherwise limits effectiveness in addition to solutions for handling data input and output in a relativistically boosted frame of reference. The observed high-frequency instability is mitigated using methods including an electromagnetic solver with tunable coefficients, its extension to accomodate Perfectly Matched Layers and Friedman's damping algorithms, as well as an efficient large bandwidth digital filter. It is shown that choosing the frame of the wake as the frame of reference allows for higher levels of filtering and damping than is possible in other frames for the same accuracy. Detailed testing also revealed serendipitously the existence of a singular time step at which the instability level is minimized, independently of numerical dispersion, thus indicating that the observed instability may not be due primarily to Numerical Cerenkov as has been conjectured. The techniques developed for Cerenkov mitigation prove nonetheless to be very efficient at controlling the instability. Using these techniques, agreement at the percentage level is demonstrated between simulations using different frames of reference, with speedups reaching two orders of magnitude for a 0.1 GeV class stages. The method then allows direct and efficient full-scale modeling of deeply depleted laser-plasma stages of 10 GeV-1 TeV for the first time, verifying the scaling of plasma accelerators to very high energies. Over 4, 5 and 6 orders of magnitude speedup is achieved for the modeling of 10 GeV, 100 GeV and 1 TeV class stages, respectively.

  20. Modeling laser wakefield accelerators in a Lorentz boosted frame

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vay, J.-L.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Cormier-Michel, E.; Grote, D.P.

    2010-01-01

    Modeling of laser-plasma wakefield accelerators in an optimal frame of reference (1) is shown to produce orders of magnitude speed-up of calculations from first principles. Obtaining these speedups requires mitigation of a high frequency instability that otherwise limits effectiveness in addition to solutions for handling data input and output in a relativistically boosted frame of reference. The observed high-frequency instability is mitigated using methods including an electromagnetic solver with tunable coefficients, its extension to accommodate Perfectly Matched Layers and Friedman's damping algorithms, as well as an efficient large bandwidth digital filter. It is shown that choosing the frame of the wake as the frame of reference allows for higher levels of filtering and damping than is possible in other frames for the same accuracy. Detailed testing also revealed serendipitously the existence of a singular time step at which the instability level is minimized, independently of numerical dispersion, thus indicating that the observed instability may not be due primarily to Numerical Cerenkov as has been conjectured. The techniques developed for Cerenkov mitigation prove nonetheless to be very efficient at controlling the instability. Using these techniques, agreement at the percentage level is demonstrated between simulations using different frames of reference, with speedups reaching two orders of magnitude for a 0.1 GeV class stages. The method then allows direct and efficient full-scale modeling of deeply depleted laser-plasma stages of 10 GeV-1 TeV for the first time, verifying the scaling of plasma accelerators to very high energies. Over 4, 5 and 6 orders of magnitude speedup is achieved for the modeling of 10 GeV, 100 GeV and 1 TeV class stages, respectively.

  1. An ultrashort pulse ultra-violet radiation undulator source driven by a laser plasma wakefield accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anania, M. P. [SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG (United Kingdom); INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, I-00044 Frascati (Italy); Brunetti, E.; Wiggins, S. M.; Grant, D. W.; Welsh, G. H.; Issac, R. C.; Cipiccia, S.; Shanks, R. P.; Manahan, G. G.; Aniculaesei, C.; Jaroszynski, D. A., E-mail: d.a.jaroszynski@strath.ac.uk [SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG (United Kingdom); Geer, S. B. van der; Loos, M. J. de [Pulsar Physics, Burghstraat 47, 5614 BC Eindhoven (Netherlands); Poole, M. W.; Shepherd, B. J. A.; Clarke, J. A. [ASTeC, STFC, Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD (United Kingdom); Gillespie, W. A. [SUPA, School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN (United Kingdom); MacLeod, A. M. [School of Computing and Creative Technologies, University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee DD1 1HG (United Kingdom)

    2014-06-30

    Narrow band undulator radiation tuneable over the wavelength range of 150–260 nm has been produced by short electron bunches from a 2 mm long laser plasma wakefield accelerator based on a 20 TW femtosecond laser system. The number of photons measured is up to 9 × 10{sup 6} per shot for a 100 period undulator, with a mean peak brilliance of 1 × 10{sup 18} photons/s/mrad{sup 2}/mm{sup 2}/0.1% bandwidth. Simulations estimate that the driving electron bunch r.m.s. duration is as short as 3 fs when the electron beam has energy of 120–130 MeV with the radiation pulse duration in the range of 50–100 fs.

  2. Demonstration of the hollow channel plasma wakefield accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gessner, Spencer J.

    2016-09-17

    A plasma wakefield accelerator is a device that converts the energy of a relativistic particle beam into a large-amplitude wave in a plasma. The plasma wave, or wakefield, supports an enormous electricfield that is used to accelerate a trailing particle beam. The plasma wakefield accelerator can therefore be used as a transformer, transferring energy from a high-charge, low-energy particle beam into a high-energy, low-charge particle beam. This technique may lead to a new generation of ultra-compact, high-energy particle accelerators. The past decade has seen enormous progress in the field of plasma wakefield acceleration with experimental demonstrations of the acceleration of electron beams by several gigaelectron-volts. The acceleration of positron beams in plasma is more challenging, but also necessary for the creation of a high-energy electron-positron collider. Part of the challenge is that the plasma responds asymmetrically to electrons and positrons, leading to increased disruption of the positron beam. One solution to this problem, first proposed over twenty years ago, is to use a hollow channel plasma which symmetrizes the response of the plasma to beams of positive and negative charge, making it possible to accelerate positrons in plasma without disruption. In this thesis, we describe the theory relevant to our experiment and derive new results when needed. We discuss the development and implementation of special optical devices used to create long plasma channels. We demonstrate for the first time the generation of meter-scale plasma channels and the acceleration of positron beams therein.

  3. Generation of annular, high-charge electron beams at the Argonne wakefield accelerator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wisniewski, E. E.; Li, C.; Gai, W.; Power, J.

    2013-01-01

    We present and discuss the results from the experimental generation of high-charge annular(ring-shaped)electron beams at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA). These beams were produced by using laser masks to project annular laser profiles of various inner and outer diameters onto the photocathode of an RF gun. The ring beam is accelerated to 15 MeV, then it is imaged by means of solenoid lenses. Transverse profiles are compared for different solenoid settings. Discussion includes a comparison with Parmela simulations, some applications of high-charge ring beams,and an outline of a planned extension of this study.

  4. Generation of annular, high-charge electron beams at the Argonne wakefield accelerator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wisniewski, E. E.; Li, C.; Gai, W.; Power, J.

    2012-12-01

    We present and discuss the results from the experimental generation of high-charge annular(ring-shaped)electron beams at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA). These beams were produced by using laser masks to project annular laser profiles of various inner and outer diameters onto the photocathode of an RF gun. The ring beam is accelerated to 15 MeV, then it is imaged by means of solenoid lenses. Transverse profiles are compared for different solenoid settings. Discussion includes a comparison with Parmela simulations, some applications of high-charge ring beams,and an outline of a planned extension of this study.

  5. An $ep$ collider based on proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration

    CERN Document Server

    Wing, M.; Mete, O.; Aimidula, A.; Welsch, C.; Chattopadhyay, S.; Mandry, S.

    2014-01-01

    Recent simulations have shown that a high-energy proton bunch can excite strong plasma wakefields and accelerate a bunch of electrons to the energy frontier in a single stage of acceleration. This scheme could lead to a future $ep$ collider using the LHC for the proton beam and a compact electron accelerator of length 170 m, producing electrons of energy up to 100 GeV. The parameters of such a collider are discussed as well as conceptual layouts within the CERN accelerator complex. The physics of plasma wakefield acceleration will also be introduced, with the AWAKE experiment, a proof of principle demonstration of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration, briefly reviewed, as well as the physics possibilities of such an $ep$ collider.

  6. Extremely short relativistic-electron-bunch generation in the laser wakefield via novel bunch injection scheme

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Khachatryan, A.G.; van Goor, F.A.; Boller, Klaus J.; Reitsma, A.J.W.; Jaroszynski, D.A.

    2004-01-01

    Recently a new electron-bunch injection scheme for the laser wakefield accelerator has been proposed [JETP Lett. 74, 371 (2001); Phys. Rev. E 65, 046504 (2002)]. In this scheme, a low energy electron bunch, sent in a plasma channel just before a high-intensity laser pulse, is trapped in the laser

  7. High energy gain electron beam acceleration by 100TW laser

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotaki, Hideyuki; Kando, Masaki; Kondo, Shuji; Hosokai, Tomonao; Kanazawa, Shuhei; Yokoyama, Takashi; Matoba, Toru; Nakajima, Kazuhisa

    2001-01-01

    A laser wakefield acceleration experiment using a 100TW laser is planed at JAERI-Kansai. High quality and short pulse electron beams are necessary to accelerate the electron beam by the laser. Electron beam - laser synchronization is also necessary. A microtron with a photocathode rf-gun was prepared as a high quality electron injector. The quantum efficiency (QE) of the photocathode of 2x10 -5 was obtained. A charge of 100pC from the microtron was measured. The emittance and pulse width of the electron beam was 6π mm-mrad and 10ps, respectively. In order to produce a short pulse electron beam, and to synchronize between the electron beam and the laser pulse, an inverse free electron laser (IFEL) is planned. One of problems of LWFA is the short acceleration length. In order to overcome the problem, a Z-pinch plasma waveguide will be prepared as a laser wakefield acceleration tube for 1 GeV acceleration. (author)

  8. Characterisation of electron beams from laser-driven particle accelerators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brunetti, E.; Manahan, G. G.; Shanks, R. P.; Islam, M. R.; Ersfeld, B.; Anania, M. P.; Cipiccia, S.; Issac, R. C.; Vieux, G.; Welsh, G. H.; Wiggins, S. M.; Jaroszynski, D. A. [Physics Department, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG (United Kingdom)

    2012-12-21

    The development, understanding and application of laser-driven particle accelerators require accurate measurements of the beam properties, in particular emittance, energy spread and bunch length. Here we report measurements and simulations showing that laser wakefield accelerators can produce beams of quality comparable to conventional linear accelerators.

  9. Bremsstrahlung hard x-ray source driven by an electron beam from a self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemos, N.; Albert, F.; Shaw, J. L.; Papp, D.; Polanek, R.; King, P.; Milder, A. L.; Marsh, K. A.; Pak, A.; Pollock, B. B.; Hegelich, B. M.; Moody, J. D.; Park, J.; Tommasini, R.; Williams, G. J.; Chen, Hui; Joshi, C.

    2018-05-01

    An x-ray source generated by an electron beam produced using a Self-Modulated Laser Wakefield Accelerator (SM-LWFA) is explored for use in high energy density science facilities. By colliding the electron beam, with a maximum energy of 380 MeV, total charge of >10 nC and a divergence of 64 × 100 mrad, from a SM-LWFA driven by a 1 ps 120 J laser, into a high-Z foil, an x/gamma-ray source was generated. A broadband bremsstrahlung energy spectrum with temperatures ranging from 0.8 to 2 MeV was measured with an almost 2 orders of magnitude flux increase when compared with other schemes using LWFA. GEANT4 simulations were done to calculate the source size and divergence.

  10. Femtosecond laser micromachining of sapphire capillaries for laser-wakefield acceleration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Messner, Philipp; Delbos, Niels Matthias; Maier, Andreas R. [CFEL, Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, 22607 Hamburg (Germany); University of Hamburg, Institute of Experimental Physics, 22761 Hamburg (Germany); Calmano, Thomas [University of Hamburg, Institute of Experimental Physics, 22761 Hamburg (Germany)

    2015-07-01

    Laser-plasma accelerator are promising candidates to provide ultra-relativistic electron beams for compact light sources. One factor that limits the achievable electron beam energy in a laser plasma accelerator is the Rayleigh length of the driver laser, which dictates the length over which the electron beams can effectively be accelerated. To overcome this limitation lasers can be guided in a capillary waveguide to extend the acceleration length beyond the Rayleigh length. The production of waveguide structures on scales, that are suitable for plasma acceleration is very challenging. Here, we present experimental results from waveguide machining in sapphire crystals using a Clark MXR CPA 2010 laser with a wavelength of 775nm, 1KHZ repetition rate and a pulse duration of 160 fs. We discuss the effects of different parameters like energy, lens types, writing speed and polarisation on the size and shape of the capillaries, and compare the performance of different parameter sets.

  11. Wakefield damping in a pair of X-band accelerators for linear colliders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roger M. Jones

    2006-10-01

    Full Text Available We consider the means to damp the wakefield left behind ultrarelativistic charges. In particular, we focus on a pair of traveling wave accelerators operating at an X-band frequency of 11.424 GHz. In order to maximize the efficiency of acceleration, in the context of a linear collider, multiple bunches of charged particles are accelerated within a given pulse of the electromagnetic field. The wakefield left behind successive bunches, if left unchecked, can seriously disturb the progress of trailing bunches and can lead to an appreciable dilution in the emittance of the beam. We report on a method to minimize the influence of the wakefield on trailing bunches. This method entails detuning the characteristic mode frequencies which make up the electromagnetic field, damping the wakefield, and interleaving the frequencies of adjacent accelerating structures. Theoretical predictions of the wakefield and modes, based on a circuit model, are compared with experimental measurements of the wakefield conducted within the ASSET facility at SLAC. Very good agreement is obtained between theory and experiment and this allows us to have some confidence in designing the damping of wakefields in a future linear collider consisting of several thousand of these accelerating structures.

  12. Wakefield Damping in a Pair of X-Band Accelerators for Linear Colliders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, R.M.; Adolphsen, C.E.; Wang, J.W.; Li, Z.; SLAC

    2006-01-01

    We consider means to damp the wake-field left behind ultra-relativistic charges. In particular, we focus on a pair of travelling wave accelerators operating at an X-band frequency of 11.424 GHz. In order to maximize the efficiency of acceleration, in the context of a linear collider, multiple bunches of charged particles are accelerated within a given pulse of the electromagnetic field. The wake-field left behind successive bunches, if left unchecked, can seriously disturb the progress of trailing bunches and can lead to an appreciable dilution in the emittance of the beam. We report on a method to minimize the influence of the wake-field on trailing bunches. This method entails detuning the characteristic mode frequencies which make-up the electromagnetic field, damping the wake-field, and interleaving the frequencies of adjacent accelerating structures. Theoretical predictions of the wake-field and modes, based on a circuit model, are compared with experimental measurements of the wake-field conducted within the ASSET facility at SLAC. Very good agreement is obtained between theory and experiment and this allows us to have some confidence in designing the damping of wake-fields in a future linear collider consisting of several thousand of these accelerating structures

  13. Extremely short relativistic-electron-bunch generation in the laser wakefield via novel bunch injection scheme

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. G. Khachatryan

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available Recently a new electron-bunch injection scheme for the laser wakefield accelerator has been proposed [JETP Lett. 74, 371 (2001JTPLA20021-364010.1134/1.1427124; Phys. Rev. E 65, 046504 (2002PLEEE81063-651X10.1103/PhysRevE.65.046504]. In this scheme, a low energy electron bunch, sent in a plasma channel just before a high-intensity laser pulse, is trapped in the laser wakefield, considerably compressed and accelerated to an ultrarelativistic energy. In this paper we show the possibility of the generation of an extremely short (on the order of 1   μm long or a few femtoseconds in duration relativistic-electron-bunch by this mechanism. The initial electron bunch, which can be generated, for example, by a laser-driven photocathode rf gun, should have an energy of a few hundred keVs to a few MeVs, a duration in the picosecond range or less and a relatively low concentration. The trapping conditions and parameters of an accelerated bunch are investigated. The laser pulse dynamics as well as a possible experimental setup for the demonstration of the injection scheme are also considered.

  14. Coaxial two-channel high-gradient dielectric wakefield accelerator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. V. Sotnikov

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available A new scheme for a dielectric wakefield accelerator is proposed that employs a cylindrical multizone dielectric structure configured as two concentric dielectric tubes with outer and inner vacuum channels for drive and accelerated bunches. Analytical and numerical studies have been carried out for such coaxial dielectric-loaded structures (CDS for high-gradient acceleration. An analytical theory of wakefield excitation by particle bunches in a multizone CDS has been formulated. Numerical calculations are presented for an example of a CDS using dielectric tubes with dielectric permittivity 5.7, having external diameters of 2.121 and 0.179 mm with inner diameters of 2.095 and 0.1 mm. An annular 5 GeV, 6 nC electron bunch with rms length of 0.035 mm energizes a wakefield on the structure axis having an accelerating gradient of ∼600  MeV/m with a transformer ratio ∼8∶1. The period of the accelerating field is ∼0.33  mm. If the width of the drive bunch channel is decreased, it is possible to obtain an accelerating gradient of >1  GeV/m while keeping the transformer ratio approximately the same. Full numerical simulations using a particle-in-cell code have confirmed results of the linear theory and furthermore have shown the important influence of the quenching wave that restricts the region of the wakefield to within several periods following the drive bunch. Numerical simulations for another example have shown nearly stable transport of drive and accelerated bunches through the CDS, using a short train of drive bunches.

  15. AWAKE, The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment at CERN

    CERN Document Server

    Gschwendtner, E.; Amorim, L.; Apsimon, R.; Assmann, R.; Bachmann, A.M.; Batsch, F.; Bauche, J.; Berglyd Olsen, V.K.; Bernardini, M.; Bingham, R.; Biskup, B.; Bohl, T.; Bracco, C.; Burrows, P.N.; Burt, G.; Buttenschon, B.; Butterworth, A.; Caldwell, A.; Cascella, M.; Chevallay, E.; Cipiccia, S.; Damerau, H.; Deacon, L.; Dirksen, P.; Doebert, S.; Dorda, U.; Farmer, J.; Fedosseev, V.; Feldbaumer, E.; Fiorito, R.; Fonseca, R.; Friebel, F.; Gorn, A.A.; Grulke, O.; Hansen, J.; Hessler, C.; Hofle, W.; Holloway, J.; Huther, M.; Jaroszynski, D.; Jensen, L.; Jolly, S.; Joulaei, A.; Kasim, M.; Keeble, F.; Li, Y.; Liu, S.; Lopes, N.; Lotov, K.V.; Mandry, S.; Martorelli, R.; Martyanov, M.; Mazzoni, S.; Mete, O.; Minakov, V.A.; Mitchell, J.; Moody, J.; Muggli, P.; Najmudin, Z.; Norreys, P.; Oz, E.; Pardons, A.; Pepitone, K.; Petrenko, A.; Plyushchev, G.; Pukhov, A.; Rieger, K.; Ruhl, H.; Salveter, F.; Savard, N.; Schmidt, J.; Seryi, A.; Shaposhnikova, E.; Sheng, Z.M.; Sherwood, P.; Silva, L.; Soby, L.; Sosedkin, A.P.; Spitsyn, R.I.; Trines, R.; Tuev, P.V.; Turner, M.; Verzilov, V.; Vieira, J.; Vincke, H.; Wei, Y.; Welsch, C.P.; Wing, M.; Xia, G.; Zhang, H.

    2016-01-01

    The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE) aims at studying plasma wakefield generation and electron acceleration driven by proton bunches. It is a proof-of-principle R&D experiment at CERN and the world's first proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment. The AWAKE experiment will be installed in the former CNGS facility and uses the 400 GeV/c proton beam bunches from the SPS. The first experiments will focus on the self-modulation instability of the long (rms ~12 cm) proton bunch in the plasma. These experiments are planned for the end of 2016. Later, in 2017/2018, low energy (~15 MeV) electrons will be externally injected to sample the wakefields and be accelerated beyond 1 GeV. The main goals of the experiment will be summarized. A summary of the AWAKE design and construction status will be presented.

  16. Quantitative single shot and spatially resolved plasma wakefield diagnostics

    CERN Document Server

    Kasim, Muhammad Firmansyah; Ceurvorst, Luke; Levy, Matthew C; Ratan, Naren; Sadler, James; Bingham, Robert; Burrows, Philip N; Trines, Raoul; Wing, Matthew; Norreys, Peter

    2015-01-01

    Diagnosing plasma conditions can give great advantages in optimizing plasma wakefield accelerator experiments. One possible method is that of photon acceleration. By propagating a laser probe pulse through a plasma wakefield and extracting the imposed frequency modulation, one can obtain an image of the density modulation of the wakefield. In order to diagnose the wakefield parameters at a chosen point in the plasma, the probe pulse crosses the plasma at oblique angles relative to the wakefield. In this paper, mathematical expressions relating the frequency modulation of the laser pulse and the wakefield density profile of the plasma for oblique crossing angles are derived. Multidimensional particle-in-cell simulation results presented in this paper confirm that the frequency modulation profiles and the density modulation profiles agree to within 10%. Limitations to the accuracy of the measurement are discussed in this paper. This technique opens new possibilities to quantitatively diagnose the plasma wakefie...

  17. Enhancement of proton acceleration field in laser double-layer target interaction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gu, Y. J.; Kong, Q.; Li, X. F.; Yu, Q.; Wang, P. X.; Kawata, S.; Izumiyama, T.; Ma, Y. Y.

    2013-01-01

    A mechanism is proposed to enhance a proton acceleration field in laser plasma interaction. A double-layer plasma with different densities is illuminated by an intense short pulse. Electrons are accelerated to a high energy in the first layer by the wakefield. The electrons accelerated by the laser wakefield induce the enhanced target normal sheath (TNSA) and breakout afterburner (BOA) accelerations through the second layer. The maximum proton energy reaches about 1 GeV, and the total charge with an energy higher than 100 MeV is about several tens of μC/μm. Both the acceleration gradient and laser energy transfer efficiency are higher than those in single-target-based TNSA or BOA. The model has been verified by 2.5D-PIC simulations

  18. A tunable electron beam source using trapping of electrons in a density down-ramp in laser wakefield acceleration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ekerfelt, Henrik; Hansson, Martin; Gallardo González, Isabel; Davoine, Xavier; Lundh, Olle

    2017-09-25

    One challenge in the development of laser wakefield accelerators is to demonstrate sufficient control and reproducibility of the parameters of the generated bunches of accelerated electrons. Here we report on a numerical study, where we demonstrate that trapping using density down-ramps allows for tuning of several electron bunch parameters by varying the properties of the density down-ramp. We show that the electron bunch length is determined by the difference in density before and after the ramp. Furthermore, the transverse emittance of the bunch is controlled by the steepness of the ramp. Finally, the amount of trapped charge depends both on the density difference and on the steepness of the ramp. We emphasize that both parameters of the density ramp are feasible to vary experimentally. We therefore conclude that this tunable electron accelerator makes it suitable for a wide range of applications, from those requiring short pulse length and low emittance, such as the free-electron lasers, to those requiring high-charge, large-emittance bunches to maximize betatron X-ray generation.

  19. Experimental studies of plasma wake-field acceleration and focusing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosenzweig, J.B.; Cole, B.; Ho, C.; Argonne National Lab., IL

    1989-01-01

    More than four years after the initial proposal of the Plasma Wake-field Accelerator (PWFA), it continues to be the object of much investigation, due to the promise of the ultra-high accelerating gradients that can exist in relativistic plasma waves driven in the wake of charged particle beams. These large amplitude plasma wake-fields are of interest in the laboratory, both for the wealth of basic nonlinear plasma wave phenomena which can be studied, as well as for the applications of acceleration of focusing of electrons and positrons in future linear colliders. Plasma wake-field waves are also of importance in nature, due to their possible role in direct cosmic ray acceleration. The purpose of the present work is to review the recent experimental advances made in PWFA research at Argonne National Laboratory, in which many interesting beam and plasma phenomena have been observed. Emphasis is given to discussion of the nonlinear aspects of the PWFA beam-plasma interaction. 29 refs., 13 figs

  20. Control, timing, and data acquisition for the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schoessow, P.; Ho, C.; Power, J.; Chojnacki, E.

    1993-01-01

    The AWA is a new facility primarily designed for wakefield acceleration experiments at the 100 MV/m scale, which incorporates a high current linac and rf photocathode electron source, a low emittance rf electron gun for witness beam generation, and associated beamlines and diagnostics. The control system is based on VME and CA-MAC electronics interfaced to a high performance work-station and provides some distributed processing capability. In addition to the control of linac rf, laser optics, and beamlines, the system is also used for acquisition of video data both from luminescent beam position monitors and from streak camera pulse length diagnostics. Online image feature extraction will permit wakefields to be computed during the course of data taking. The linac timing electronics and its interface to the control system is described

  1. Generating multi-GeV electron bunches using single stage laser wakefield acceleration in a 3D nonlinear regime

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. Lu

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available The extraordinary ability of space-charge waves in plasmas to accelerate charged particles at gradients that are orders of magnitude greater than in current accelerators has been well documented. We develop a phenomenological framework for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA in the 3D nonlinear regime, in which the plasma electrons are expelled by the radiation pressure of a short pulse laser, leading to nearly complete blowout. Our theory provides a recipe for designing a LWFA for given laser and plasma parameters and estimates the number and the energy of the accelerated electrons whether self-injected or externally injected. These formulas apply for self-guided as well as externally guided pulses (e.g. by plasma channels. We demonstrate our results by presenting a sample particle-in-cell (PIC simulation of a 30   fs, 200 TW laser interacting with a 0.75 cm long plasma with density 1.5×10^{18}  cm^{-3} to produce an ultrashort (10 fs monoenergetic bunch of self-injected electrons at 1.5 GeV with 0.3 nC of charge. For future higher-energy accelerator applications, we propose a parameter space, which is distinct from that described by Gordienko and Pukhov [Phys. Plasmas 12, 043109 (2005PHPAEN1070-664X10.1063/1.1884126] in that it involves lower plasma densities and wider spot sizes while keeping the intensity relatively constant. We find that this helps increase the output electron beam energy while keeping the efficiency high.

  2. Compact and tunable focusing device for plasma wakefield acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pompili, R.; Anania, M. P.; Chiadroni, E.; Cianchi, A.; Ferrario, M.; Lollo, V.; Notargiacomo, A.; Picardi, L.; Ronsivalle, C.; Rosenzweig, J. B.; Shpakov, V.; Vannozzi, A.

    2018-03-01

    Plasma wakefield acceleration, either driven by ultra-short laser pulses or electron bunches, represents one of the most promising techniques able to overcome the limits of conventional RF technology and allows the development of compact accelerators. In the particle beam-driven scenario, ultra-short bunches with tiny spot sizes are required to enhance the accelerating gradient and preserve the emittance and energy spread of the accelerated bunch. To achieve such tight transverse beam sizes, a focusing system with short focal length is mandatory. Here we discuss the development of a compact and tunable system consisting of three small-bore permanent-magnet quadrupoles with 520 T/m field gradient. The device has been designed in view of the plasma acceleration experiments planned at the SPARC_LAB test-facility. Being the field gradient fixed, the focusing is adjusted by tuning the relative position of the three magnets with nanometer resolution. Details about its magnetic design, beam-dynamics simulations, and preliminary results are examined in the paper.

  3. Summary Report of Working Group 6: Laser-Plasma Acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leemans, Wim P.; Downer, Michael; Siders, Craig

    2006-01-01

    A summary is given of presentations and discussions in the Laser-Plasma Acceleration Working Group at the 2006 Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop. Presentation highlights include: widespread observation of quasi-monoenergetic electrons; good agreement between measured and simulated beam properties; the first demonstration of laser-plasma acceleration up to 1 GeV; single-shot visualization of laser wakefield structure; new methods for measuring <100 fs electron bunches; and new methods for 'machining' laser-plasma accelerator structures. Discussion of future direction includes: developing a roadmap for laser-plasma acceleration beyond 1 GeV; a debate over injection and guiding; benchmarking simulations with improved wake diagnostics; petawatt laser technology for future laser-plasma accelerators

  4. Staging of laser-plasma accelerators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Steinke, S., E-mail: ssteinke@lbl.gov; Tilborg, J. van; Benedetti, C.; Geddes, C. G. R.; Gonsalves, A. J.; Nakamura, K.; Schroeder, C. B.; Esarey, E. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States); Daniels, J. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States); Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600MB Eindhoven (Netherlands); Swanson, K. K.; Shaw, B. H.; Leemans, W. P. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States); University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)

    2016-05-15

    We present results of an experiment where two laser-plasma-accelerator stages are coupled at a short distance by a plasma mirror. Stable electron beams from the first stage were used to longitudinally probe the dark-current-free, quasi-linear wakefield excited by the laser of the second stage. Changing the arrival time of the electron beam with respect to the second stage laser pulse allowed reconstruction of the temporal wakefield structure, determination of the plasma density, and inference of the length of the electron beam. The first stage electron beam could be focused by an active plasma lens to a spot size smaller than the transverse wake size at the entrance of the second stage. This permitted electron beam trapping, verified by a 100 MeV energy gain.

  5. Photonuclear fission with quasimonoenergetic electron beams from laser wakefields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reed, S. A.; Chvykov, V.; Kalintchenko, G.; Matsuoka, T.; Rousseau, P.; Yanovsky, V.; Vane, C. R.; Beene, J. R.; Stracener, D.; Schultz, D. R.; Maksimchuk, A.

    2006-01-01

    Recent advancements in laser wakefield accelerators have resulted in the generation of low divergence, hundred MeV, quasimonoenergetic electron beams. The bremsstrahlung produced by these highly energetic electrons in heavy converters includes a large number of MeV γ rays that have been utilized to induce photofission in natural uranium. Analysis of the measured delayed γ emission demonstrates production of greater than 3x10 5 fission events per joule of laser energy, which is more than an order of magnitude greater than that previously achieved. Monte Carlo simulations model the generated bremsstrahlung spectrum and compare photofission yields as a function of target depth and incident electron energy

  6. Optical plasma torch electron bunch generation in plasma wakefield accelerators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Wittig

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available A novel, flexible method of witness electron bunch generation in plasma wakefield accelerators is described. A quasistationary plasma region is ignited by a focused laser pulse prior to the arrival of the plasma wave. This localized, shapeable optical plasma torch causes a strong distortion of the plasma blowout during passage of the electron driver bunch, leading to collective alteration of plasma electron trajectories and to controlled injection. This optically steered injection is more flexible and faster when compared to hydrodynamically controlled gas density transition injection methods.

  7. Wakefields and Instabilities in Linear Accelerators

    CERN Document Server

    Ferrario, M.; Palumbo, L.

    2014-12-19

    When a charged particle travels across the vacuum chamber of an accelerator, it induces electromagnetic fields, which are left mainly behind the generating particle. These electromagnetic fields act back on the beam and influence its motion. Such an interaction of the beam with its surro undings results in beam energy losses, alters the shape of the bunches, and shifts the betatron and synchrotron frequencies. At high beam current the fields can even lead to instabilities, thus limiting the performance of the accelerator in terms of beam quality and current intensity. We discuss in this lecture the general features of the electromagnetic fields, introducing the concepts of wakefields and giving a few simple examples in cylindrical geometry. We then show the effect of the wakefields on the dynamics of a beam in a linac, dealing in particular with the beam breakup instability and how to cure it.

  8. A preliminary design of the collinear dielectric wakefield accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zholents, A.; Gai, W.; Doran, S.; Lindberg, R.; Power, J.G.; Strelnikov, N.; Sun, Y.; Trakhtenberg, E.; Vasserman, I. [ANL, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States); Jing, C.; Kanareykin, A.; Li, Y. [Euclid Techlabs LLC, Solon, OH 44139 (United States); Gao, Q. [Tsinghua University, Beijing (China); Shchegolkov, D.Y.; Simakov, E.I. [LANL, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)

    2016-09-01

    A preliminary design of the multi-meter long collinear dielectric wakefield accelerator that achieves a highly efficient transfer of the drive bunch energy to the wakefields and to the witness bunch is considered. It is made from ~0.5 m long accelerator modules containing a vacuum chamber with dielectric-lined walls, a quadrupole wiggler, an rf coupler, and BPM assembly. The single bunch breakup instability is a major limiting factor for accelerator efficiency, and the BNS damping is applied to obtain the stable multi-meter long propagation of a drive bunch. Numerical simulations using a 6D particle tracking computer code are performed and tolerances to various errors are defined.

  9. Development and characterization of plasma targets for controlled injection of electrons into laser-driven wakefields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kleinwaechter, Tobias; Goldberg, Lars; Palmer, Charlotte; Schaper, Lucas; Schwinkendorf, Jan-Patrick; Osterhoff, Jens

    2012-10-01

    Laser-driven wakefield acceleration within capillary discharge waveguides has been used to generate high-quality electron bunches with GeV-scale energies. However, owing to fluctuations in laser and plasma conditions in combination with a difficult to control self-injection mechanism in the non-linear wakefield regime these bunches are often not reproducible and can feature large energy spreads. Specialized plasma targets with tailored density profiles offer the possibility to overcome these issues by controlling the injection and acceleration processes. This requires precise manipulation of the longitudinal density profile. Therefore our target concept is based on a capillary structure with multiple gas in- and outlets. Potential target designs are simulated using the fluid code OpenFOAM and those meeting the specified criteria are fabricated using femtosecond-laser machining of structures into sapphire plates. Density profiles are measured over a range of inlet pressures utilizing gas-density profilometry via Raman scattering and pressure calibration with longitudinal interferometry. In combination these allow absolute density mapping. Here we report the preliminary results.

  10. Laser-driven acceleration with Bessel and Gaussian beams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hafizi, B.; Esarey, E.; Sprangle, P.

    1997-01-01

    The possibility of enhancing the energy gain in laser-driven accelerators by using Bessel laser beams is examined. Scaling laws are derived for the propagation length, acceleration gradient, and energy gain in various accelerators for both Gaussian and Bessel beam drivers. For equal beam powers, the energy gain can be increased by a factor of N 1/2 by utilizing a Bessel beam with N lobes, provided that the acceleration gradient is linearly proportional to the laser field. This is the case in the inverse free electron laser and the inverse Cherenkov accelerators. If the acceleration gradient is proportional to the square of the laser field (e.g., the laser wakefield, plasma beat wave, and vacuum beat wave accelerators), the energy gain is comparable with either beam profile. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

  11. Note: Real-time monitoring via second-harmonic interferometry of a flow gas cell for laser wakefield acceleration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brandi, F; Giammanco, F; Conti, F; Sylla, F; Lambert, G; Gizzi, L A

    2016-08-01

    The use of a gas cell as a target for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) offers the possibility to obtain stable and manageable laser-plasma interaction process, a mandatory condition for practical applications of this emerging technique, especially in multi-stage accelerators. In order to obtain full control of the gas particle number density in the interaction region, thus allowing for a long term stable and manageable LWFA, real-time monitoring is necessary. In fact, the ideal gas law cannot be used to estimate the particle density inside the flow cell based on the preset backing pressure and the room temperature because the gas flow depends on several factors like tubing, regulators, and valves in the gas supply system, as well as vacuum chamber volume and vacuum pump speed/throughput. Here, second-harmonic interferometry is applied to measure the particle number density inside a flow gas cell designed for LWFA. The results demonstrate that real-time monitoring is achieved and that using low backing pressure gas (<1 bar) and different cell orifice diameters (<2 mm) it is possible to finely tune the number density up to the 10(19) cm(-3) range well suited for LWFA.

  12. Note: Real-time monitoring via second-harmonic interferometry of a flow gas cell for laser wakefield acceleration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brandi, F., E-mail: fernando.brandi@ino.it [Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL), Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (INO-CNR), Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa (Italy); Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova (Italy); Giammanco, F.; Conti, F. [Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa (Italy); Plasma Diagnostics and Technologies Ltd., via Matteucci n.38/D, 56124 Pisa (Italy); Sylla, F. [SourceLAB SAS, 86 Rue de Paris, 91400 Orsay (France); Lambert, G. [LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau Cedex (France); Gizzi, L. A. [Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL), Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (INO-CNR), Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa (Italy)

    2016-08-15

    The use of a gas cell as a target for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) offers the possibility to obtain stable and manageable laser-plasma interaction process, a mandatory condition for practical applications of this emerging technique, especially in multi-stage accelerators. In order to obtain full control of the gas particle number density in the interaction region, thus allowing for a long term stable and manageable LWFA, real-time monitoring is necessary. In fact, the ideal gas law cannot be used to estimate the particle density inside the flow cell based on the preset backing pressure and the room temperature because the gas flow depends on several factors like tubing, regulators, and valves in the gas supply system, as well as vacuum chamber volume and vacuum pump speed/throughput. Here, second-harmonic interferometry is applied to measure the particle number density inside a flow gas cell designed for LWFA. The results demonstrate that real-time monitoring is achieved and that using low backing pressure gas (<1 bar) and different cell orifice diameters (<2 mm) it is possible to finely tune the number density up to the 10{sup 19} cm{sup −3} range well suited for LWFA.

  13. Note: Real-time monitoring via second-harmonic interferometry of a flow gas cell for laser wakefield acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brandi, F.; Giammanco, F.; Conti, F.; Sylla, F.; Lambert, G.; Gizzi, L. A.

    2016-08-01

    The use of a gas cell as a target for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) offers the possibility to obtain stable and manageable laser-plasma interaction process, a mandatory condition for practical applications of this emerging technique, especially in multi-stage accelerators. In order to obtain full control of the gas particle number density in the interaction region, thus allowing for a long term stable and manageable LWFA, real-time monitoring is necessary. In fact, the ideal gas law cannot be used to estimate the particle density inside the flow cell based on the preset backing pressure and the room temperature because the gas flow depends on several factors like tubing, regulators, and valves in the gas supply system, as well as vacuum chamber volume and vacuum pump speed/throughput. Here, second-harmonic interferometry is applied to measure the particle number density inside a flow gas cell designed for LWFA. The results demonstrate that real-time monitoring is achieved and that using low backing pressure gas (<1 bar) and different cell orifice diameters (<2 mm) it is possible to finely tune the number density up to the 1019 cm-3 range well suited for LWFA.

  14. Theory of the dielectric wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mtingwa, S.K.

    1990-10-01

    The general theory for all angular modes m of the dielectric wakefield accelerator is reformulated. The expressions for the accelerating electric fields and transverse wake forces are written in terms of matrices, the zeros of one of which determine the excitation frequencies of the dielectric structure. In this scheme it is possible to obtain a maximum accelerating gradient of 2.0 megavolts per meter per nanoCoulomb of driver beam charge, for a driver beam of 0.7 millimeters rms bunch length. 29 refs., 5 figs

  15. Laser wakefields at UCLA and LLNL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mori, W.B.; Clayton, C.E.; Joshi, C.; Dawson, J.M.; Decker, C.B.; Marsh, K.; Katsouleas, T.; Darrow, C.B.; Wilks, S.C.

    1991-01-01

    The authors report on recent progress at UCLA and LLNL on the nonlinear laser wakefield scheme. They find advantages to operating in the limit where the laser pulse is narrow enough to expel all the plasma electrons from the focal region. A description of the experimental program for the new short pulse 10 TW laser facility at LLNL is also presented

  16. Hot spots and dark current in advanced plasma wakefield accelerators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. G. Manahan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Dark current can spoil witness bunch beam quality and acceleration efficiency in particle beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerators. In advanced schemes, hot spots generated by the drive beam or the wakefield can release electrons from higher ionization threshold levels in the plasma media. These electrons may be trapped inside the plasma wake and will then accumulate dark current, which is generally detrimental for a clear and unspoiled plasma acceleration process. Strategies for generating clean and robust, dark current free plasma wake cavities are devised and analyzed, and crucial aspects for experimental realization of such optimized scenarios are discussed.

  17. 2D hydrodynamic simulations of a variable length gas target for density down-ramp injection of electrons into a laser wakefield accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kononenko, O., E-mail: olena.kononenko@desy.de [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Lopes, N.C.; Cole, J.M.; Kamperidis, C.; Mangles, S.P.D.; Najmudin, Z. [The John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science, The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, SW7 2BZ UK (United Kingdom); Osterhoff, J. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Poder, K. [The John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science, The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, SW7 2BZ UK (United Kingdom); Rusby, D.; Symes, D.R. [Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot OX11 0QX (United Kingdom); Warwick, J. [Queens University Belfast, North Ireland (United Kingdom); Wood, J.C. [The John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science, The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, SW7 2BZ UK (United Kingdom); Palmer, C.A.J. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg (Germany)

    2016-09-01

    In this work, two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic simulations of a variable length gas cell were performed using the open source fluid code OpenFOAM. The gas cell was designed to study controlled injection of electrons into a laser-driven wakefield at the Astra Gemini laser facility. The target consists of two compartments: an accelerator and an injector section connected via an aperture. A sharp transition between the peak and plateau density regions in the injector and accelerator compartments, respectively, was observed in simulations with various inlet pressures. The fluid simulations indicate that the length of the down-ramp connecting the sections depends on the aperture diameter, as does the density drop outside the entrance and the exit cones. Further studies showed, that increasing the inlet pressure leads to turbulence and strong fluctuations in density along the axial profile during target filling, and consequently, is expected to negatively impact the accelerator stability.

  18. Self-resonant wakefield excitation by intense laser pulse in plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andreev, N.E.; Pogosova, A.A.; Gorbunov, L.M.; Ramazashvili, R.R.; Kirsanov, V.I.

    1993-01-01

    It is demonstrated by theoretical analysis and numerical calculations that in an underdense plasma the process of three-dimensional evolution of the short and strong laser pulse (with duration equal to several plasma periods) leads to compression and self-modulation of the pulse, so that during a fairly long period of time beats of pulse amplitude generates resonantly a strong and stable plasma wakefield. The intensity of the wake-field is so high that it can provide a new promising outlook for the plasma based accelerator concept. Linear analysis of dispersion relation predicts that taking into account transverse component of wavenumber considerably increases the growth rate of resonance instability of the pulse. The numerical simulations demonstrate that considered self-focusing and resonant-modulation instability are essentially three dimensional processes. Laser field evolution in each transverse cross section of the pulse is synchronized by the regular structure of plasma wave that is excited by the pulse. The considered effect of resonant modulation has a threshold. For the pulses with the intensity below the threshold the refraction dominates and no modulation appears. The studied phenomenon can be referred to as the Self-Resonant Wakefield (SRWF) excitation that is driven by self-focusing and self-modulation of laser pulse with quite a moderate initial duration. In fact, this method of excitation differs from both suggested in Ref.1 (PBWA) and in Refs.2,3 (LWFA), being even more than the combination of these concepts. Unlike the first scheme it does not require initially the two-frequency laser pulse, since the modulation here appears in the most natural way due to evolution of the pulse. In contrast with the LWFA, the considered SRWF generation scheme gives the possibility to raise the intensity of wake-excitation due to pulse self-focusing ( initial stage) and self modulation (second stage)

  19. Analysis of radial and longitudinal field of plasma wakefield generated by a Laguerre-Gauss laser pulse

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Firouzjaei, Ali Shekari; Shokri, Babak [Department of Physics, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Evin, Tehran 19839-63113 (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

    2016-06-15

    In the present paper, we study the wakes known as the donut wake which is generated by Laguerre-Gauss (LG) laser pulses. Effects of the special spatial profile of a LG pulse on the radial and longitudinal wakefields are presented via an analytical model in a weakly non-linear regime in two dimensions. Different aspects of the donut-shaped wakefields have been analyzed and compared with Gaussian-driven wakes. There is also some discussion about the accelerating-focusing phase of the donut wake. Variations of longitudinal and radial wakes with laser amplitude, pulse length, and pulse spot size have been presented and discussed. Finally, we present the optimum pulse duration for such wakes.

  20. Study of laser driven plasma based electron acceleration and Bremsstrahlung radiation emission using ultra-high intensity laser pulses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rao, B.S.

    2013-01-01

    High energy particle accelerators are one of the most important inventions of the twentieth century which have led to enormous advances in basic scientific understanding of world around us. Despite their grand success, the present day high energy accelerators are hitting practical limits due to their large size and cost. This is because the accelerating gradients in conventional radio-frequency (RF) accelerators are typically limited to < 50 MV/m by the field breakdown of the accelerating structure. To address this major issue, many advanced accelerator techniques have been proposed and some of them are being actively pursued. Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) in plasma medium is one of the techniques being most actively pursued world over due to extremely large acceleration gradients of the order of 100 GV/m possible in this scheme which promises significant reduction of the size and cost of the future high energy accelerators. The present thesis work mainly deals with laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) of self-injected electrons to 10s of MeV energy in plasma medium of length of the order of 500 μm using the table-top 10 TW laser at Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology

  1. Accelerator for medical applications and electron acceleration by laser plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hosokai, Tomonao; Uesaka, Mitsuru

    2006-01-01

    In this article, the current status of radiation therapies in Japan and updated medical accelerators are reviewed. For medical use, there is a strong demand of a compact and flexible accelerator. At present, however, we have only two choices of the S-band linac with one or two rotation axis combined with the multi leaf collimator, or the X-band linac with a rather flexible robotic arm. In addition, the laser plasma cathode that is the second generation of the laser wake-field accelerator (LWFA) is studied as a high-quality electron source for medical use though it is still at the stage of the basic research. The potential of LWFA as medical accelerator near future is discussed based on updated results of laser plasma cathode experiment in Univ. of Tokyo. (author)

  2. The acceleration of particles by relativistic electron plasma waves driven by the optical mixing of laser light in a plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ebrahim, N.A.; Douglas, S.R.

    1992-03-01

    Electron acceleration by relativistic large-amplitude electron plasma waves is studied by theory and particle simulations. The maximum acceleration that can be obtained from this process depends on many different factors. This report presents a study of how these various factors impact on the acceleration mechanism. Although particular reference is made to the laser plasma beatwave concept, the study is equally relevant to the acceleration of particles in the plasma wakefield accelerator and the laser wakefield accelerator

  3. Summary report: working group 2 on 'Plasma Based Acceleration Concepts'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Esarey, E.; Leemans, W.P.

    1998-01-01

    A summary of the talks, papers and discussion sessions presented in the Working Group on Plasma Based Acceleration Concepts is given within the context of the progress towards a 1 GeV laser driven accelerator module. The topics covered within the Working Group were self-modulated laser wakefield acceleration, standard laser wakefield acceleration, plasma beat wave acceleration, laser guiding and wake excitation in plasma channels, plasma wakefield acceleration, plasma lenses and optical injection techniques for laser wakefield accelerators. An overview will be given of the present status of experimental and theoretical progress as well as an outlook towards the future physics and technological challenges for the development of an optimized accelerator module

  4. Editorial: Focus on Laser- and Beam-Driven Plasma Accelerators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joshi, Chan; Malka, Victor

    2010-04-01

    The ability of short but intense laser pulses to generate high-energy electrons and ions from gaseous and solid targets has been well known since the early days of the laser fusion program. However, during the past decade there has been an explosion of experimental and theoretical activity in this area of laser-matter interaction, driven by the prospect of realizing table-top plasma accelerators for research, medical and industrial uses, and also relatively small and inexpensive plasma accelerators for high-energy physics at the frontier of particle physics. In this focus issue on laser- and beam-driven plasma accelerators, the latest advances in this field are described. Focus on Laser- and Beam-Driven Plasma Accelerators Contents Slow wave plasma structures for direct electron acceleration B D Layer, J P Palastro, A G York, T M Antonsen and H M Milchberg Cold injection for electron wakefield acceleration X Davoine, A Beck, A Lifschitz, V Malka and E Lefebvre Enhanced proton flux in the MeV range by defocused laser irradiation J S Green, D C Carroll, C Brenner, B Dromey, P S Foster, S Kar, Y T Li, K Markey, P McKenna, D Neely, A P L Robinson, M J V Streeter, M Tolley, C-G Wahlström, M H Xu and M Zepf Dose-dependent biological damage of tumour cells by laser-accelerated proton beams S D Kraft, C Richter, K Zeil, M Baumann, E Beyreuther, S Bock, M Bussmann, T E Cowan, Y Dammene, W Enghardt, U Helbig, L Karsch, T Kluge, L Laschinsky, E Lessmann, J Metzkes, D Naumburger, R Sauerbrey, M. Scḧrer, M Sobiella, J Woithe, U Schramm and J Pawelke The optimum plasma density for plasma wakefield excitation in the blowout regime W Lu, W An, M Zhou, C Joshi, C Huang and W B Mori Plasma wakefield acceleration experiments at FACET M J Hogan, T O Raubenheimer, A Seryi, P Muggli, T Katsouleas, C Huang, W Lu, W An, K A Marsh, W B Mori, C E Clayton and C Joshi Electron trapping and acceleration on a downward density ramp: a two-stage approach R M G M Trines, R Bingham, Z Najmudin

  5. Organization of lasers with particle accelerators to create new tools for frontier sciences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakajima, Kazuhisa; Kando, Masaki; Kotaki, Hideyuki; Kondo, Shuji; Kanazawa, Shuhei; Masuda, Shinichi; Honma, Takayuki

    2003-01-01

    Recently great advances of ultraintense ultrashort pulse lasers have brought about tremendous experimental and theoretical progress in maturity of laser-driven particle accelerator concepts. In near future creation of new tools for frontier sciences is forseen, which will be combined and organized from ultraintense lasers and particle accelerators. Here we report research activities on the laser acceleration at JAERI - APR as well as the outlook for developments of laser-driven particle injectors, accelerators and radiation sources. Recent world-wide experiments have successfully demonstrated that the self-modulated LWFA mechanism is capable of generating ultrahigh accelerating gradient of the order of 100 GeV/m, while the maximum energy gain is limited at most to 200 MeV with energy spread of 100% because of dephasing and wavebreaking effects in plasmas. The first high energy gain acceleration 300 MeV has been opened with the injection of an electron beam at an energy matched to a wakefield phase velocity in a fairly underdense plasma by our group. Our activities on laser acceleration research have focused on the laser wakefield accelerator developments for high energy electron acceleration achieving more than 1 GeV with channel-guided scheme, and on high quality beam generation with both conventional and advanced technologies. The main task has been devoted to completion of the Laser Acceleration Test Facility (LATF) consisting of the photocathode RF gun, the 150 MeV microtron accelerator and the test beam line as well as the estimation of radiation doses produced by LATF for the radiation safety clearance. With the use of LATF, we plan to demonstrate the channel-guided LWFA in which both the driving laser pulses and particle beams can be guided through the capillary discharge plasmas with a cm-scale length. The development of the plasma waveguide is underway after the first demonstration of propagating a 2 TW, 90 fs laser pulse through a stable 2 cm plasma

  6. Tailoring the laser pulse shape to improve the quality of the self-injected electron beam in laser wakefield acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Upadhyay, Ajay K.; Samant, Sushil A.; Krishnagopal, S.

    2013-01-01

    In laser wakefield acceleration, tailoring the shape of the laser pulse is one way of influencing the laser-plasma interaction and, therefore, of improving the quality of the self-injected electron beam in the bubble regime. Using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, the evolution dynamics of the laser pulse and the quality of the self-injected beam, for a Gaussian pulse, a positive skew pulse (i.e., one with sharp rise and slow fall), and a negative skew pulse (i.e., one with a slow rise and sharp fall) are studied. It is observed that with a negative skew laser pulse there is a substantial improvement in the emittance (by around a factor of two), and a modest improvement in the energy-spread, compared to Gaussian as well as positive skew pulses. However, the injected charge is less in the negative skew pulse compared to the other two. It is also found that there is an optimal propagation distance that gives the best beam quality; beyond this distance, though the energy increases, the beam quality deteriorates, but this deterioration is least for the negative skew pulse. Thus, the negative skew pulse gives an improvement in terms of beam quality (emittance and energy spread) over what one can get with a Gaussian or positive skew pulse. In part, this is because of the lesser injected charge, and the strong suppression of continuous injection for the negative skew pulse.

  7. Plasma accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bingham, R.; Angelis, U. de; Johnston, T.W.

    1991-01-01

    Recently attention has focused on charged particle acceleration in a plasma by a fast, large amplitude, longitudinal electron plasma wave. The plasma beat wave and plasma wakefield accelerators are two efficient ways of producing ultra-high accelerating gradients. Starting with the plasma beat wave accelerator (PBWA) and laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) schemes and the plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) steady progress has been made in theory, simulations and experiments. Computations are presented for the study of LWFA. (author)

  8. High energy photon emission from wakefields

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Farinella, D. M., E-mail: dfarinel@uci.edu; Lau, C. K.; Taimourzadeh, S.; Hwang, Y.; Abazajian, K.; Canac, N.; Taborek, P.; Tajima, T. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 (United States); Zhang, X. M., E-mail: zhxm@siom.ac.cn [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 (United States); Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800 (China); Koga, J. K., E-mail: koga.james@qst.go.jp [Kansai Photon Science Institute, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Kizugawa, Kyoto 619-0215 (Japan); Ebisuzaki, T., E-mail: ebisu@riken.jp [RIKEN, Wako, Saitama 351-0198 (Japan)

    2016-07-15

    Experimental evidence has accumulated to indicate that wakefield acceleration (WFA) accompanies intense and sometimes coherent emission of radiation such as from betatron radiation. The investigation of this issue has additional impetus nowadays because we are learning (1) there is an additional acceleration process of the ponderomotive acceleration; (2) WFA may become relevant in much higher density regimes; (3) WFA has been proposed as the mechanism for extreme high energy cosmic ray acceleration and gamma ray bursts for active galactic nuclei. These require us to closely examine the radiative mechanisms in WFA anew. We report studies of radiation from wakefield (self-injected betatron) and ponderomotive (laser field) mechanisms in scalings of the frequency and intensity of the driver, as well as the plasma density.

  9. Plasma based accelerators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Caldwell, Allen [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Physik, Muenchen (Germany)

    2015-05-01

    The concept of laser-induced plasma wakefields as a technique to accelerate charged particles was introduced 35 years ago as a means to go beyond the accelerating gradients possible with metallic cavities supporting radio frequency electromagnetic fields. Significant developments in laser technology have made possible the pulse intensity needed to realize this concept, and rapid progress is now underway in the realization of laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. It has also been realized that similar accelerating gradients can be produced by particle beams propagating in plasmas, and experimental programs have also been undertaken to study this possibility. Positive results have been achieved with electron-driven plasma wakefields, and a demonstration experiment with proton-driven wakefields is under construction at CERN. The concepts behind these different schemes and their pros and cons are described, as well as the experimental results achieved. An outlook for future practical uses of plasma based accelerators will also be given.

  10. Performance of the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility and initial experimental results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gai, W.; Conde, M.; Cox, G.; Konecny, R.; Power, J.; Schoessow, P.; Simpson, J.; Barov, N.

    1996-01-01

    The Argonne Wakefield Accelerator facility has begun its experimental program. It is designed to address advanced acceleration research requiring very short, intense electron bunches. It incorporates two photocathode based electron sources. One produces up to 100 nC, multi-kiloamp 'drive' bunches which are used to excite wakefields in dielectric loaded structures and in plasma. The second source produces much lower intensity 'witness' pulses which are used to probe the fields produced by the drive. The drive and witness pulses can be precisely timed as well as laterally positioned with respect to each other. This paper discusses commissioning, initial experiments, and outline plans for a proposed 1 GeV demonstration accelerator

  11. Electron beam manipulation, injection and acceleration in plasma wakefield accelerators by optically generated plasma density spikes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wittig, Georg; Karger, Oliver S.; Knetsch, Alexander [Institute of Experimental Physics, University of Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg (Germany); Xi, Yunfeng; Deng, Aihua; Rosenzweig, James B. [Particle Beam Physics Laboratory, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States); Bruhwiler, David L. [RadiaSoft LLC, Boulder, CO 80304 (United States); RadiaBeam Technologies LLC (United States); Smith, Jonathan [Tech-X UK Ltd, Daresbury, Cheshire WA4 4FS (United Kingdom); Sheng, Zheng-Ming; Jaroszynski, Dino A.; Manahan, Grace G. [Physics Department, SUPA, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG (United Kingdom); Hidding, Bernhard [Institute of Experimental Physics, University of Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg (Germany); Physics Department, SUPA, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG (United Kingdom)

    2016-09-01

    We discuss considerations regarding a novel and robust scheme for optically triggered electron bunch generation in plasma wakefield accelerators [1]. In this technique, a transversely propagating focused laser pulse ignites a quasi-stationary plasma column before the arrival of the plasma wake. This localized plasma density enhancement or optical “plasma torch” distorts the blowout during the arrival of the electron drive bunch and modifies the electron trajectories, resulting in controlled injection. By changing the gas density, and the laser pulse parameters such as beam waist and intensity, and by moving the focal point of the laser pulse, the shape of the plasma torch, and therefore the generated trailing beam, can be tuned easily. The proposed method is much more flexible and faster in generating gas density transitions when compared to hydrodynamics-based methods, and it accommodates experimentalists needs as it is a purely optical process and straightforward to implement.

  12. Plasma Wakefield Acceleration of an Intense Positron Beam

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Blue, B

    2004-04-21

    The Plasma Wakefield Accelerator (PWFA) is an advanced accelerator concept which possess a high acceleration gradient and a long interaction length for accelerating both electrons and positrons. Although electron beam-plasma interactions have been extensively studied in connection with the PWFA, very little work has been done with respect to positron beam-plasma interactions. This dissertation addresses three issues relating to a positron beam driven plasma wakefield accelerator. These issues are (a) the suitability of employing a positron drive bunch to excite a wake; (b) the transverse stability of the drive bunch; and (c) the acceleration of positrons by the plasma wake that is driven by a positron bunch. These three issues are explored first through computer simulations and then through experiments. First, a theory is developed on the impulse response of plasma to a short drive beam which is valid for small perturbations to the plasma density. This is followed up with several particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations which study the experimental parameter (bunch length, charge, radius, and plasma density) range. Next, the experimental setup is described with an emphasis on the equipment used to measure the longitudinal energy variations of the positron beam. Then, the transverse dynamics of a positron beam in a plasma are described. Special attention is given to the way focusing, defocusing, and a tilted beam would appear to be energy variations as viewed on our diagnostics. Finally, the energy dynamics imparted on a 730 {micro}m long, 40 {micro}m radius, 28.5 GeV positron beam with 1.2 x 10{sup 10} particles in a 1.4 meter long 0-2 x 10{sup 14} e{sup -}/cm{sup 3} plasma is described. First the energy loss was measured as a function of plasma density and the measurements are compared to theory. Then, an energy gain of 79 {+-} 15 MeV is shown. This is the first demonstration of energy gain of a positron beam in a plasma and it is in good agreement with the predictions

  13. Performance of the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator facility and initial experimental results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gai, W.; Conde, M.; Cox, G.; Konecny, R.; Power, J.; Schoessow, P.; Simpson, J.; Barov, N.

    1996-01-01

    The Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) facility has begun its experimental program. This unique facility is designed to address advanced acceleration research which requires very short, intense electron bunches. The facility incorporates two photo-cathode based electron sources. One produces up to 100 nC, multi-kiloamp 'drive' bunches which are used to excite wakefields in dielectric loaded structures and in plasma. The second source produces much lower intensity 'witness' pulses which are used to probe the fields produced by the drive. The drive and witness pulses can be precisely timed as well as laterally positioned with respect to each other. We discuss commissioning, initial experiments, and outline plans for a proposed 1 GeV demonstration accelerator. (author)

  14. A Proton-Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration experiment at CERN

    CERN Multimedia

    The AWAKE Collaboration has been formed in order to demonstrate protondriven plasma wakefield acceleration for the first time. This technology could lead to future colliders of high energy but of a much reduced length compared to proposed linear accelerators. The SPS proton beam in the CNGS facility will be injected into a 10m plasma cell where the long proton bunches will be modulated into significantly shorter micro-bunches. These micro-bunches will then initiate a strong wakefield in the plasma with peak fields above 1 GV/m that will be harnessed to accelerate a bunch of electrons from about 20MeV to the GeV scale within a few meters. The experimental program is based on detailed numerical simulations of beam and plasma interactions. The main accelerator components, the experimental area and infrastructure required as well as the plasma cell and the diagnostic equipment are discussed in detail. First protons to the experiment are expected at the end of 2016 and this will be followed by an initial 3–4 yea...

  15. High quality electron beams from a plasma channel guided laser wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geddes, C.G.R.; Toth, Cs.; Tilborg, J. van; Esarey, E.; Schroeder, C.B.; Bruhwiler, D.; Nieter, C.; Cary, J.; Leemans, W.P.

    2004-01-01

    Laser driven accelerators, in which particles are accelerated by the electric field of a plasma wave driven by an intense laser, have demonstrated accelerating electric fields of hundreds of GV/m. These fields are thousands of times those achievable in conventional radiofrequency (RF) accelerators, spurring interest in laser accelerators as compact next generation sources of energetic electrons and radiation. To date however, acceleration distances have been severely limited by lack of a controllable method for extending the propagation distance of the focused laser pulse. The ensuing short acceleration distance results in low energy beams with 100% electron energy spread, limiting applications. Here we demonstrate that a relativistically intense laser can be guided by a preformed plasma density channel and that the longer propagation distance can result in electron beams of percent energy spread with low emittance and increased energy, containing >10 9 electrons above 80 MeV. The preformed plasma channel technique forms the basis of a new class of accelerators, combining beam quality comparable to RF accelerators with the high gradients of laser accelerators to produce compact tunable high brightness electron and radiation sources

  16. Excitation of Accelerating Plasma Waves by Counter-propagating Laser Beams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gennady Shvets; Nathaniel J. Fisch; Alexander Pukhov

    2001-01-01

    Generation of accelerating plasma waves using two counter-propagating laser beams is considered. Colliding-beam accelerator requires two laser pulses: the long pump and the short timing beam. We emphasize the similarities and differences between the conventional laser wakefield accelerator and the colliding-beam accelerator (CBA). The highly nonlinear nature of the wake excitation is explained using both nonlinear optics and plasma physics concepts. Two regimes of CBA are considered: (i) the short-pulse regime, where the timing beam is shorter than the plasma period, and (ii) the parametric excitation regime, where the timing beam is longer than the plasma period. Possible future experiments are also outlined

  17. Automated analysis for detecting beams in laser wakefield simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ushizima, Daniela M.; Rubel, Oliver; Prabhat, Mr.; Weber, Gunther H.; Bethel, E. Wes; Aragon, Cecilia R.; Geddes, Cameron G.R.; Cormier-Michel, Estelle; Hamann, Bernd; Messmer, Peter; Hagen, Hans

    2008-01-01

    Laser wakefield particle accelerators have shown the potential to generate electric fields thousands of times higher than those of conventional accelerators. The resulting extremely short particle acceleration distance could yield a potential new compact source of energetic electrons and radiation, with wide applications from medicine to physics. Physicists investigate laser-plasma internal dynamics by running particle-in-cell simulations; however, this generates a large dataset that requires time-consuming, manual inspection by experts in order to detect key features such as beam formation. This paper describes a framework to automate the data analysis and classification of simulation data. First, we propose a new method to identify locations with high density of particles in the space-time domain, based on maximum extremum point detection on the particle distribution. We analyze high density electron regions using a lifetime diagram by organizing and pruning the maximum extrema as nodes in a minimum spanning tree. Second, we partition the multivariate data using fuzzy clustering to detect time steps in a experiment that may contain a high quality electron beam. Finally, we combine results from fuzzy clustering and bunch lifetime analysis to estimate spatially confined beams. We demonstrate our algorithms successfully on four different simulation datasets

  18. Dose properties of x-ray beams produced by laser-wakefield-accelerated electrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kainz, K K; Hogstrom, K R; Antolak, J A; Almond, P R; Bloch, C D

    2005-01-01

    Given that laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) has been demonstrated experimentally to accelerate electron beams to energies beyond 25 MeV, it is reasonable to assess the ability of existing LWFA technology to compete with conventional radiofrequency linear accelerators in producing electron and x-ray beams for external-beam radiotherapy. We present calculations of the dose distributions (off-axis dose profiles and central-axis depth dose) and dose rates of x-ray beams that can be produced from electron beams that are generated using state-of-the-art LWFA. Subsets of an LWFA electron energy distribution were propagated through the treatment head elements (presuming an existing design for an x-ray production target and flattening filter) implemented within the EGSnrc Monte Carlo code. Three x-ray energy configurations (6 MV, 10 MV and 18 MV) were studied, and the energy width ΔE of the electron-beam subsets varied from 0.5 MeV to 12.5 MeV. As ΔE increased from 0.5 MeV to 4.5 MeV, we found that the off-axis and central-axis dose profiles for x-rays were minimally affected (to within about 3%), a result slightly different from prior calculations of electron beams broadened by scattering foils. For ΔE of the order of 12 MeV, the effect on the off-axis profile was of the order of 10%, but the central-axis depth dose was affected by less than 2% for depths in excess of about 5 cm beyond d max . Although increasing ΔE beyond 6.5 MeV increased the dose rate at d max by more than 10 times, the absolute dose rates were about 3 orders of magnitude below those observed for LWFA-based electron beams at comparable energies. For a practical LWFA-based x-ray device, the beam current must be increased by about 4-5 orders of magnitude. (note)

  19. First results of the plasma wakefield acceleration experiment at PITZ

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lishilin, O.; Gross, M.; Brinkmann, R.; Engel, J.; Grüner, F.; Koss, G.; Krasilnikov, M.; Martinez de la Ossa, A.; Mehrling, T.; Osterhoff, J.; Pathak, G.; Philipp, S.; Renier, Y.; Richter, D.; Schroeder, C.; Schütze, R.; Stephan, F.

    2016-01-01

    The self-modulation instability of long particle beams was proposed as a new mechanism to produce driver beams for proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA). The PWFA experiment at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY, Zeuthen site (PITZ) was launched to experimentally demonstrate and study the self-modulation of long electron beams in plasma. Key aspects for the experiment are the very flexible photocathode laser system, a plasma cell and well-developed beam diagnostics. In this contribution we report about the plasma cell design, preparatory experiments and the results of the first PWFA experiment at PITZ. - Highlights: • A self-modulation mechanism for producing driver beams for PWFA is proposed. • A proof-of-principle experiment is launched at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY. • The self-modulation instability occurs in long particle beams passing through plasma. • A heat pipe oven and a laser are used to produce plasma.

  20. Wake-field studies on photonic band gap accelerator cavities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, D.; Kroll, N.; Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, M/S 26, P.O. Box 4349, Stanford, California; Smith, D.R.; Schultz, S.

    1997-01-01

    We have studied the wake-field of several metal Photonic Band Gap (PBG) cavities which consist of either a square or a hexagonal array of metal cylinders, bounded on top and bottom by conducting or superconducting sheets, surrounded by placing microwave absorber at the periphery or by replacing outer rows of metal cylinders with lossy dielectric ones, or by metallic walls. A removed cylinder from the center of the array constitutes a site defect where a localized electromagnetic mode can occur. While both monopole and dipole wake-fields have been studied, we confine our attention here mainly to the dipole case. The dipole wake-field is produced by modes in the propagation bands which tend to fill the entire cavity more or less uniformly and are thus easy to damp selectively. MAFIA time domain simulation of the transverse wake-field has been compared with that of a cylindrical pill-box comparison cavity. Even without damping the wake-field of the metal PBG cavity is substantially smaller than that of the pill-box cavity and may be further reduced by increasing the size of the lattice. By introducing lossy material at the periphery we have been able to produce Q factors for the dipole modes in the 40 to 120 range without significantly degrading the accelerating mode. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

  1. Calculating the radiation characteristics of accelerated electrons in laser-plasma interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, X. F.; Yu, Q.; Qu, J. F.; Kong, Q.; Gu, Y. J.; Ma, Y. Y.; Kawata, S.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we studied the characteristics of radiation emitted by electrons accelerated in a laser–plasma interaction by using the Lienard–Wiechert field. In the interaction of a laser pulse with a underdense plasma, electrons are accelerated by two mechanisms: direct laser acceleration (DLA) and laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). At the beginning of the process, the DLA electrons emit most of the radiation, and the DLA electrons emit a much higher peak photon energy than the LWFA electrons. As the laser–plasma interaction progresses, the LWFA electrons become the major radiation emitter; however, even at this stage, the contribution from DLA electrons is significant, especially to the peak photon energy.

  2. Quasi-stable injection channels in a wakefield accelerator

    CERN Document Server

    Wiltshire-Turkay, Mara; Pukhov, Alexander

    2016-01-01

    Particle-driven plasma-wakefield acceleration is a promising alternative to conventional electron acceleration techniques, potentially allowing electron acceleration to energies orders of magnitude higher than can currently be achieved. In this work we investigate the dependence of the energy gain on the position at which electrons are injected into the wake. Test particle simulations show previously unobserved complex structure in the parameter space, with quasi-stable injection channels forming for particles injected in narrow regions away from the centre of the wake. The result is relevant to the planning and tuning of experiments making use of external injection.

  3. Self-Resonant Plasma Wake-Field Excitation by a Laser-Pulse with a Steep Leading-Edge for Particle-Acceleration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Goloviznin, V. V.; van Amersfoort, P. W.

    1995-01-01

    The self-modulational instability of a relatively long laser pulse with a power close to or less than the critical power for relativistic self-focusing in plasma is considered. Strong wake-field excitation occurs as the result of a correlated transverse and longitudinal evolution of the pulse. The

  4. Energy Efficiency of an Intracavity Coupled, Laser-Driven Linear Accelerator Pumped by an External Laser

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neil Na, Y.C.; Siemann, R.H.; SLAC; Byer, R.L.; Stanford U., Phys. Dept.

    2005-01-01

    We calculate the optimum energy efficiency of a laser-driven linear accelerator by adopting a simple linear model. In the case of single bunch operation, the energy efficiency can be enhanced by incorporating the accelerator into a cavity that is pumped by an external laser. In the case of multiple bunch operation, the intracavity configuration is less advantageous because the strong wakefield generated by the electron beam is also recycled. Finally, the calculation indicates that the luminosity of a linear collider based on such a structure is comparably small if high efficiency is desired

  5. Time-resolved measurements with streaked diffraction patterns from electrons generated in laser plasma wakefield

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Zhaohan; Nees, John; Hou, Bixue; Krushelnick, Karl; Thomas, Alec; Beaurepaire, Benoît; Malka, Victor; Faure, Jérôme

    2013-10-01

    Femtosecond bunches of electrons with relativistic to ultra-relativistic energies can be robustly produced in laser plasma wakefield accelerators (LWFA). Scaling the electron energy down to sub-relativistic and MeV level using a millijoule laser system will make such electron source a promising candidate for ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) applications due to the intrinsic short bunch duration and perfect synchronization with the optical pump. Recent results of electron diffraction from a single crystal gold foil, using LWFA electrons driven by 8-mJ, 35-fs laser pulses at 500 Hz, will be presented. The accelerated electrons were collimated with a solenoid magnetic lens. By applying a small-angle tilt to the magnetic lens, the diffraction pattern can be streaked such that the temporal evolution is separated spatially on the detector screen after propagation. The observable time window and achievable temporal resolution are studied in pump-probe measurements of photo-induced heating on the gold foil.

  6. Laser plasma acceleration of electrons with multi-PW laser beams in the frame of CILEX

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cros, B., E-mail: brigitte.cros@u-psud.fr [LPGP, CNRS and Université Paris Sud, Orsay (France); Paradkar, B.S. [LPGP, CNRS and Université Paris Sud, Orsay (France); Davoine, X. [CEA DAM DIF, Arpajon F-91297 (France); Chancé, A. [CEA IRFU-SACM, Gif-Sur-Yvette (France); Desforges, F.G. [LPGP, CNRS and Université Paris Sud, Orsay (France); Dobosz-Dufrénoy, S. [CEA DSM-IRAMIS-SPAM, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Delerue, N. [LAL, CNRS and Universit Paris Sud, Orsay (France); Ju, J.; Audet, T.L.; Maynard, G. [LPGP, CNRS and Université Paris Sud, Orsay (France); Lobet, M.; Gremillet, L. [CEA DAM DIF, Arpajon F-91297 (France); Mora, P. [CPhT, CNRS and Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France); Schwindling, J.; Delferrière, O. [CEA IRFU-SACM, Gif-Sur-Yvette (France); Bruni, C.; Rimbault, C.; Vinatier, T. [LAL, CNRS and Universit Paris Sud, Orsay (France); Di Piazza, A. [Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg (Germany); Grech, M. [LULI, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, CEA, UPMC, Palaiseau (France); and others

    2014-03-11

    Laser plasma acceleration of electrons has progressed along with advances in laser technology. It is thus expected that the development in the near-future of multi-PW-class laser and facilities will enable a vast range of scientific opportunities for laser plasma acceleration research. On one hand, high peak powers can be used to explore the extremely high intensity regime of laser wakefield acceleration, producing for example large amounts of electrons in the GeV range or generating high energy photons. On the other hand, the available laser energy can be used in the quasi-linear regime to create accelerating fields in large volumes of plasma and study controlled acceleration in a plasma stage of externally injected relativistic particles, either electrons or positrons. In the frame of the Centre Interdisciplinaire de la Lumière EXtrême (CILEX), the Apollon-10P laser will deliver two beams at the 1 PW and 10 PW levels, in ultra-short (>15fs) pulses, to a target area dedicated to electron acceleration studies, such as the exploration of the non-linear regimes predicted theoretically, or multi-stage laser plasma acceleration.

  7. Production and applications of quasi-monoenergetic electron bunches in laser-plasma based accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glinec, Y.; Faure, J.; Ewald, F.; Lifschitz, A.; Malka, V.

    2006-01-01

    Plasmas are attractive media for the next generation of compact particle accelerators because they can sustain electric fields larger than those in conventional accelerators by three orders of magnitude. However, until now, plasma-based accelerators have produced relatively poor quality electron beams even though for most practical applications, high quality beams are required. In particular, beams from laser plasma-based accelerators tend to have a large divergence and very large energy spreads, meaning that different particles travel at different speeds. The combination of these two problems makes it difficult to utilize these beams. Here, we demonstrate the production of high quality and high energy electron beams from laser-plasma interaction: in a distance of 3 mm, a very collimated and quasi-monoenergetic electron beam is emitted with a 0.5 nanocoulomb charge at 170 ± 20 MeV. In this regime, we have observed very nonlinear phenomena, such as self-focusing and temporal self-shortenning down to 10 fs durations. Both phenomena increase the excitation of the wakefield. The laser pulse drives a highly nonlinear wakefield, able to trap and accelerate plasma background electrons to a single energy. We will review the different regimes of electron acceleration and we will show how enhanced performances can be reached with state-of-the-art ultrashort laser systems. Applications such as gamma radiography of such electron beams will also be discussed

  8. Forward directed x-ray from source produced by relativistic electrons from a Self-Modulated Laser Wakefield Accelerator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemos, Nuno; Albert, Felicie; Shaw, Jessica; King, Paul; Milder, Avi; Marsh, Ken; Pak, Arthur; Joshi, Chan

    2017-10-01

    Plasma-based particle accelerators are now able to provide the scientific community with novel light sources. Their applications span many disciplines, including high-energy density sciences, where they can be used as probes to explore the physics of dense plasmas and warm dense matter. A recent advance is in the experimental and theoretical characterization of x-ray emission from electrons in the self-modulated laser wakefield regime (SMLWFA) where little is known about the x-ray properties. A series of experiments at the LLNL Jupiter Laser Facility, using the 1 ps 150 J Titan laser, have demonstrated low divergence electron beams with energies up to 300 MeV and 6 nCs of charge, and betatron x-rays with critical energies up to 20 keV. This work identifies two other mechanisms which produce high energy broadband x-rays and gamma-rays from the SMLWFA: Bremsstrahlung and inverse Compton scattering. We demonstrate the use of Compton scattering and bremsstrahlung to generate x/Gamma-rays from 3 keV up to 1.5 MeV with a source size of 50um and a divergence of 100 mrad. This work is an important step towards developing this x-ray light source on large-scale international laser facilities, and also opens up the prospect of using them for applications. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.

  9. Simulations and experiments on external electron injection for laser wakefield acceleration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dijk, van W.

    2010-01-01

    Laser wake field acceleration is a technique that can be used to accelerate electrons using electric fields that are several orders of magnitude higher than those available in conventional accelerators. With these higher fields, it is possible to drastically reduce the length of accelerator needed

  10. The transverse forces in wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosing, M.; Gai, W.

    1990-01-01

    An attempt is presented to compare beam breakup problems in dielectric lined waveguide with plasmas as they pertain to wakefield accelerators. In the waveguide position it is measured relative to the physical center of the guide but in a plasma position it is relative to the centroid of the bunch creating the wakes. Dielectrics are very linear making their behaviour well suited for analytical study. Plasmas are very nonlinear so many approximations should be made to put them into an analytical regime. (R.P.) 6 refs.; 4 figs

  11. High-quality electron beam generation in a proton-driven hollow plasma wakefield accelerator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Y.; Xia, G.; Lotov, K. V.; Sosedkin, A. P.; Hanahoe, K.; Mete-Apsimon, O.

    2017-10-01

    Simulations of proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerators have demonstrated substantially higher accelerating gradients compared to conventional accelerators and the viability of accelerating electrons to the energy frontier in a single plasma stage. However, due to the strong intrinsic transverse fields varying both radially and in time, the witness beam quality is still far from suitable for practical application in future colliders. Here we demonstrate the efficient acceleration of electrons in proton-driven wakefields in a hollow plasma channel. In this regime, the witness bunch is positioned in the region with a strong accelerating field, free from plasma electrons and ions. We show that the electron beam carrying the charge of about 10% of 1 TeV proton driver charge can be accelerated to 0.6 TeV with a preserved normalized emittance in a single channel of 700 m. This high-quality and high-charge beam may pave the way for the development of future plasma-based energy frontier colliders.

  12. Laser driven particle acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Faure, J.

    2009-06-01

    This dissertation summarizes the last ten years of research at the Laboratory of Applied Optics on laser-plasma based electron acceleration. The main result consists of the development and study of a relativistic electron source with unique properties: high energy (100-300 MeV) in short distances (few millimeters), mono-energetic, ultra-short (few fs), stable and tunable. The manuscript describes the steps that led to understanding the physics, and then mastering it in order to produce this new electron source. Non linear propagation of the laser pulse in the plasma is first presented, with phenomena such as non linear wakefield excitation, relativistic and ponderomotive self-focusing in the short pulse regime, self-compression. Acceleration and injection of electrons are then reviewed from a theoretical perspective. Experimental demonstrations of self-injection in the bubble regime and then colliding pulse injection are then presented. These experiments were among the first to produce monoenergetic, high quality, stable and tunable electron beams from a laser-plasma accelerator. The last two chapters are dedicated to the characterization of the electron beam using transition radiation and to its applications to gamma radiography and radiotherapy. Finally, the perspectives of this research are presented in the conclusion. Scaling laws are used to determine the parameters that the electron beams will reach using peta-watt laser systems currently under construction. (author)

  13. Longitudinal gas-density profilometry for plasma-wakefield acceleration targets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaper, Lucas; Goldberg, Lars; Kleinwächter, Tobias; Schwinkendorf, Jan-Patrick; Osterhoff, Jens

    2014-03-01

    Precise tailoring of plasma-density profiles has been identified as one of the critical points in achieving stable and reproducible conditions in plasma wakefield accelerators. Here, the strict requirements of next generation plasma-wakefield concepts, such as hybrid-accelerators, with densities around 1017 cm-3 pose challenges to target fabrication as well as to their reliable diagnosis. To mitigate these issues we combine target simulation with fabrication and characterization. The resulting density profiles in capillaries with gas jet and multiple in- and outlets are simulated with the fluid code OpenFOAM. Satisfactory simulation results then are followed by fabrication of the desired target shapes with structures down to the 10 μm level. The detection of Raman scattered photons using lenses with large collection solid angle allows to measure the corresponding longitudinal density profiles at different number densities and allows a detection sensitivity down to the low 1017 cm-3 density range at high spatial resolution. This offers the possibility to gain insight into steep density gradients as for example in gas jets and at the plasma-to-vacuum transition.

  14. Laser wakefield excitation and measurement on a femtosecond time scale: Theory and experiment. Progress report, September 1, 1993--August 31, 1994

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tajima, T.; Downer, M.

    1994-03-01

    This is a progress report describing work on laser generated wakefields, which can be applied to particle acceleration. The authors have carried out simulation studies in one and two dimensions, and experimental studies of the generation of such fields. The authors also report on the propagation studies of femtosecond laser pulses in atmospheric density gases, and work on developing such high power laser sources, with well controlled pointing and spectral characteristics. The project has involved collaboration with Japanese and Russian researchers

  15. Laser surface wakefield in a plasma column

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gorbunov, L.M.; Mora, P.; Ramazashvili, R.R.

    2003-01-01

    The structure of the wakefield in a plasma column, produced by a short intense laser pulse, propagating through a gas affected by tunneling ionization is investigated. It is shown that besides the usual plasma waves in the bulk part of the plasma column [see Andreev et al., Phys. Plasmas 9, 3999 (2002)], the laser pulse also generates electromagnetic surface waves propagating along the column boundary. The length of the surface wake wave substantially exceeds the length of the plasma wake wave and its electromagnetic field extends far outside the plasma column

  16. Extending laser plasma accelerators into the mid-IR spectral domain with a next-generation ultra-fast CO2 laser

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pogorelsky, I. V.; Babzien, M.; Ben-Zvi, I.; Polyanskiy, M. N.; Skaritka, J.; Tresca, O.; Dover, N. P.; Najmudin, Z.; Lu, W.; Cook, N.; Ting, A.; Chen, Y.-H.

    2016-03-01

    Expanding the scope of relativistic plasma research to wavelengths longer than the λ/≈   0.8-1.1 μm range covered by conventional mode-locked solid-state lasers would offer attractive opportunities due to the quadratic scaling of the ponderomotive electron energy and critical plasma density with λ. Answering this quest, a next-generation mid-IR laser project is being advanced at the BNL ATF as a part of the user facility upgrade. We discuss the technical approach to this conceptually new 100 TW, 100 fs, λ  =   9-11 μm CO2 laser BESTIA (Brookhaven Experimental Supra-Terawatt Infrared at ATF) that encompasses several innovations applied for the first time to molecular gas lasers. BESTIA will enable new regimes of laser plasma accelerators. One example is shock-wave ion acceleration (SWA) from gas jets. We review ongoing efforts to achieve stable, monoenergetic proton acceleration by dynamically shaping the plasma density profile from a hydrogen gas target with laser-produced blast waves. At its full power, 100 TW BESTIA promises to achieve proton beams at an energy exceeding 200 MeV. In addition to ion acceleration in over-critical plasma, the ultra-intense mid-IR BESTIA will open up new opportunities in driving wakefields in tenuous plasmas, expanding the landscape of laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) studies into the unexplored long-wavelength spectral domain. Simple wavelength scaling suggests that a 100 TW CO2 laser beam will be capable of efficiently generating plasma ‘bubbles’ a thousand times greater in volume compared with a near-IR solid state laser of an equivalent power. Combined with a femtosecond electron linac available at the ATF, this wavelength scaling will facilitate the study of external seeding and staging of LWFAs.

  17. Numerical simulations of intense charged particle beam propagation in a dielectric wakefield accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gai, W.; Kanareykin, A.D.; Kustov, A.L.; Simpson, J.

    1995-01-01

    The propagation of an intense electron beam through a long dielectric tube is a critical issue for the success of the dielectric wakefield acceleration scheme. Due to the head-tail instability, a high current charged particle beam cannot propagate long distance without external focusing. In this paper we examine the beam handling and control problem in the dielectric wakefield accelerator. We show that for the designed 15.6 GHz and 20 GHz dielectric structures a 150 MeV, 40 endash 100 nC beam can be controlled and propagate up to 5 meters without significant particle losses by using external applied focusing and defocusing channel (FODO) around the dielectric tube. Particle dynamics of the accelerated beam is also studied. Our results show that for typical dielectric acceleration structures, the head-tail instabilities can be conveniently controlled in the same way as the driver beam. copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics

  18. A broadband gamma-ray spectrometry using novel unfolding algorithms for characterization of laser wakefield-generated betatron radiation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jeon, Jong Ho, E-mail: jhjeon07@ibs.re.kr; Nakajima, Kazuhisa, E-mail: naka115@dia-net.ne.jp; Pathak, Vishwa Bandhu; Cho, Myung Hoon; Yoo, Byung Ju; Shin, Kang Woo [Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 500-712 (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Hyung Taek; Sung, Jae Hee; Lee, Seung Ku; Choi, Il Woo [Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 500-712 (Korea, Republic of); Advanced Photonics Research Institute, GIST, Gwangju 500-712 (Korea, Republic of); Rhee, Yong Joo [Nuclear Data Center, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon 305-353 (Korea, Republic of); Shin, Jung Hun; Jo, Sung Ha [Advanced Photonics Research Institute, GIST, Gwangju 500-712 (Korea, Republic of); Hojbota, Calin; Cho, Byeoung Ick; Nam, Chang Hee [Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 500-712 (Korea, Republic of); Department of Physics and Photon Science, GIST, Gwangju 500-712 (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-12-15

    We present a high-flux, broadband gamma-ray spectrometry capable of characterizing the betatron radiation spectrum over the photon energy range from 10 keV to 20 MeV with respect to the peak photon energy, spectral bandwidth, and unique discrimination from background radiations, using a differential filtering spectrometer and the unfolding procedure based on the Monte Carlo code GEANT4. These properties are experimentally verified by measuring betatron radiation from a cm-scale laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) driven by a 1-PW laser, using a differential filtering spectrometer consisting of a 15-filter and image plate stack. The gamma-ray spectra were derived by unfolding the photostimulated luminescence (PSL) values recorded on the image plates, using the spectrometer response matrix modeled with the Monte Carlo code GEANT4. The accuracy of unfolded betatron radiation spectra was assessed by unfolding the test PSL data simulated with GEANT4, showing an ambiguity of less than 20% and clear discrimination from the background radiation with less than 10%. The spectral analysis of betatron radiation from laser wakefield-accelerated electron beams with energies up to 3 GeV revealed radiation spectra characterized by synchrotron radiation with the critical photon energy up to 7 MeV. The gamma-ray spectrometer and unfolding method presented here facilitate an in-depth understanding of betatron radiation from LWFA process and a novel radiation source of high-quality photon beams in the MeV regime.

  19. High-quality electron beam generation and bright betatron radiation from a cascaded laser wakefield accelerator (Conference Presentation)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jiansheng; Wang, Wentao; Li, Wentao; Qi, Rong; Zhang, Zhijun; Yu, Changhai; Wang, Cheng; Liu, Jiaqi; Qing, Zhiyong; Ming, Fang; Xu, Yi; Leng, Yuxin; Li, Ruxin; Xu, Zhizhan

    2017-05-01

    One of the major goals of developing laser wakefiled accelerators (LWFAs) is to produce compact high-energy electron beam (e-beam) sources, which are expected to be applied in developing compact x-ray free-electron lasers and monoenergetic gamma-ray sources. Although LWFAs have been demonstrated to generate multi-GeV e-beams, to date they are still failed to produce high quality e beams with several essential properties (narrow energy spread, small transverse emittance and high beam charge) achieved simultaneously. Here we report on the demonstration of a high-quality cascaded LWFA experimentally via manipulating electron injection, seeding in different periods of the wakefield, as well as controlling energy chirp for the compression of energy spread. The cascaded LWFA was powered by a 1-Hz 200-TW femtosecond laser facility at SIOM. High-brightness e beams with peak energies in the range of 200-600 MeV, 0.4-1.2% rms energy spread, 10-80 pC charge, and 0.2 mrad rms divergence are experimentally obtained. Unprecedentedly high 6-dimensional (6-D) brightness B6D,n in units of A/m2/0.1% was estimated at the level of 1015-16, which is very close to the typical brightness of e beams from state-of-the-art linac drivers and several-fold higher than those of previously reported LWFAs. Furthermore, we propose a scheme to minimize the energy spread of an e beam in a cascaded LWFA to the one-thousandth-level by inserting a stage to compress its longitudinal spatial distribution via velocity bunching. In this scheme, three-segment plasma stages are designed for electron injection, e-beam length compression, and e-beam acceleration, respectively. A one-dimensional theory and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations have demonstrated this scheme and an e beam with 0.2% rms energy spread and low transverse emittance could be generated without loss of charge. Based on the high-quality e beams generated in the LWFA, we have experimentally realized a new scheme to enhance the

  20. Multi-gigaelectronvolt acceleration of positrons in a self-loaded plasma wakefield

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Corde, Sebastien [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Adli, E. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Univ. of Oslo, Oslo (Norway); Allen, J. M. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); An, W. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Clarke, C. I. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Delahaye, J. P. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Frederico, J. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Gessner, S. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Green, S. Z. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Hogan, M. J. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Joshi, C. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Lipkowitz, N. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Litos, M. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lu, W. [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Marsh, K. A. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Mori, W. B. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Schmeltz, M. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Vafaei-Najafabadi, N. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Walz, D. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Yakimenko, V. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Yocky, G. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Clayton, C. E. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

    2015-08-26

    New accelerator concepts must be developed to make future particle colliders more compact and affordable. The Plasma Wakefield Accelerator (PWFA) is one such concept, where the electric field of a plasma wake excited by a charged-particle bunch is used to accelerate a trailing bunch of particles. To apply plasma acceleration to particle colliders, it is imperative that both the electrons and their antimatter counterpart, the positrons, are efficiently accelerated at high fields using plasmas1. While substantial progress has recently been reported on high-field, high-efficiency acceleration of electrons in a PWFA powered by an electron bunch 2, such an electron-driven wake is unsuitable for the acceleration and focusing of a positron bunch. Here we demonstrate a new regime of PWFA where particles in the front of a single positron bunch transfer their energy to a substantial number of those in the rear of the same bunch by exciting a wakefield in the plasma. In the process, the accelerating field is altered – self-loaded – so that about a billion positrons gain five gigaelectronvolts (GeV) of energy with a narrow energy spread in a distance of just 1.3 meters. They extract about 30% of the wake’s energy and form a spectrally distinct bunch with as low as a 1.8% r.m.s. energy spread. This demonstrated ability of positron-driven plasma wakes to efficiently accelerate a significant number of positrons with a small energy spread may overcome the long-standing challenge of positron acceleration in plasma-based accelerators.

  1. Advanced beam dynamics and diagnostics concepts for laser-plasma accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dornmair, Irene

    2017-05-01

    Laser-Plasma Accelerators (LPAs) combine a multitude of unique features, which makes them very attractive as drivers for next generation brilliant light sources including compact X-ray free-electron lasers. They provide high accelerating gradients, thereby drastically shrinking the accelerator size, while at the same time the produced electron bunches are intrinsically as short as a few femtoseconds and carry high peak currents. LPA are subject of very active research, yet, the field currently faces the challenge of improving the beam quality, and achieving stable and well-controlled injection and acceleration. This thesis tackles this issue from three different sides. A novellongitudinal phase space diagnostics is proposed that employs the strong fields present in plasma wakefields to streak ultrashort electron bunches. This allows for a temporal resolution down to the attosecond range, enabling direct determination to the current profile and the slice energy spread, both crucial quantities for the performance of free-electron lasers. Furthermore, adiabatic matching sections at the plasma-vacuum boundary are investigated. These can drastically reduce the beam divergence and thereby relax the constraints on the subsequent beam optics. For externally injected beams, the matching sections could even provide the key technology that permits emittance conservation by increasing the matched beam size to a level achievable with currently available magnetic optics. Finally, a new method is studied that allows to modify the wakefield shape. To this end, the plasma density is periodically modulated. One possible application can be to remove the linearly correlated energy spread, or chirp, from the accelerated bunch, which is suspected of being responsible for the main part of the often large energy spread of plasma accelerated beams.

  2. Advanced beam dynamics and diagnostics concepts for laser-plasma accelerators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dornmair, Irene

    2017-05-15

    Laser-Plasma Accelerators (LPAs) combine a multitude of unique features, which makes them very attractive as drivers for next generation brilliant light sources including compact X-ray free-electron lasers. They provide high accelerating gradients, thereby drastically shrinking the accelerator size, while at the same time the produced electron bunches are intrinsically as short as a few femtoseconds and carry high peak currents. LPA are subject of very active research, yet, the field currently faces the challenge of improving the beam quality, and achieving stable and well-controlled injection and acceleration. This thesis tackles this issue from three different sides. A novellongitudinal phase space diagnostics is proposed that employs the strong fields present in plasma wakefields to streak ultrashort electron bunches. This allows for a temporal resolution down to the attosecond range, enabling direct determination to the current profile and the slice energy spread, both crucial quantities for the performance of free-electron lasers. Furthermore, adiabatic matching sections at the plasma-vacuum boundary are investigated. These can drastically reduce the beam divergence and thereby relax the constraints on the subsequent beam optics. For externally injected beams, the matching sections could even provide the key technology that permits emittance conservation by increasing the matched beam size to a level achievable with currently available magnetic optics. Finally, a new method is studied that allows to modify the wakefield shape. To this end, the plasma density is periodically modulated. One possible application can be to remove the linearly correlated energy spread, or chirp, from the accelerated bunch, which is suspected of being responsible for the main part of the often large energy spread of plasma accelerated beams.

  3. AWAKE Design Report: A Proton-Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment at CERN

    CERN Document Server

    Caldwell, A; Lotov, K; Muggli, P; Wing, M

    2013-01-01

    The AWAKE Collaboration has been formed in order to demonstrate proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration for the first time. This technology could lead to future colliders of high energy but of a much reduced length compared to proposed linear accelerators. The SPS proton beam in the CNGS facility will be injected into a 10m plasma cell where the long proton bunches will be modulated into significantly shorter micro-bunches. These micro-bunches will then initiate a strong wakefield in the plasma with peak fields above 1 GV/m that will be harnessed to accelerate a bunch of electrons from about 20MeV to the GeV scale within a few meters. The experimental program is based on detailed numerical simulations of beam and plasma interactions. The main accelerator components, the experimental area and infrastructure required as well as the plasma cell and the diagnostic equipment are discussed in detail. First protons to the experiment are expected at the end of 2015 and this will be followed by an initial 3–4 ye...

  4. 3D printing of gas jet nozzles for laser-plasma accelerators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Döpp, A.; Guillaume, E.; Thaury, C.; Gautier, J.; Ta Phuoc, K.; Malka, V. [LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 Boulevard des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau Cedex (France)

    2016-07-15

    Recent results on laser wakefield acceleration in tailored plasma channels have underlined the importance of controlling the density profile of the gas target. In particular, it was reported that the appropriate density tailoring can result in improved injection, acceleration, and collimation of laser-accelerated electron beams. To achieve such profiles, innovative target designs are required. For this purpose, we have reviewed the usage of additive layer manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, in order to produce gas jet nozzles. Notably we have compared the performance of two industry standard techniques, namely, selective laser sintering (SLS) and stereolithography (SLA). Furthermore we have used the common fused deposition modeling to reproduce basic gas jet designs and used SLA and SLS for more sophisticated nozzle designs. The nozzles are characterized interferometrically and used for electron acceleration experiments with the SALLE JAUNE terawatt laser at Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée.

  5. Longitudinal gas-density profilometry for plasma-wakefield acceleration targets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schaper, Lucas, E-mail: lschaper01@qub.ac.uk [Universität Hamburg, FB Physik, Institut für Experimentalphysik, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg (Germany); Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg (Germany); Goldberg, Lars; Kleinwächter, Tobias; Schwinkendorf, Jan-Patrick; Osterhoff, Jens [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg (Germany)

    2014-03-11

    Precise tailoring of plasma-density profiles has been identified as one of the critical points in achieving stable and reproducible conditions in plasma wakefield accelerators. Here, the strict requirements of next generation plasma-wakefield concepts, such as hybrid-accelerators, with densities around 10{sup 17} cm{sup −3} pose challenges to target fabrication as well as to their reliable diagnosis. To mitigate these issues we combine target simulation with fabrication and characterization. The resulting density profiles in capillaries with gas jet and multiple in- and outlets are simulated with the fluid code OpenFOAM. Satisfactory simulation results then are followed by fabrication of the desired target shapes with structures down to the 10 µm level. The detection of Raman scattered photons using lenses with large collection solid angle allows to measure the corresponding longitudinal density profiles at different number densities and allows a detection sensitivity down to the low 10{sup 17} cm{sup −3} density range at high spatial resolution. This offers the possibility to gain insight into steep density gradients as for example in gas jets and at the plasma-to-vacuum transition.

  6. Generation of ultra-short relativistic-electron-bunch by a laser wakefield

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Khachatryan, A.G.; Boller, Klaus J.; van Goor, F.A.

    2003-01-01

    The possibility of the generation of an ultra-short (about one micron long) relativistic (up to a few GeVs) electron-bunch in a moderately nonlinear laser wakefield excited in an underdense plasma by an intense laser pulse is investigated. The ultra-short bunch is formed by trapping, effective

  7. Wakefield monitor development for CLIC accelerating structure

    CERN Document Server

    Peauger, F; Girardot, P; Andersson, A; Riddone, G; Samoshkin, A; Solodko, A; Zennaro, R; Ruber, R

    2010-01-01

    Abstract To achieve high luminosity in CLIC, the accelerating structures must be aligned to an accuracy of 5 μm with respect to the beam trajectory. Position detectors called Wakefield Monitors (WFM) are integrated to the structure for a beam based alignment. This paper describes the requirements of such monitors. Detailed RF design and electromagnetic simulations of the WFM itself are presented. In particular, time domain computations are performed and an evaluation of the resolution is done for two higher order modes at 18 and 24 GHz. The mechanical design of a prototype accelerating structure with WFM is also presented as well as the fabrication status of three complete structures. The objective is to implement two of them in CTF3 at CERN for a feasibility demonstration with beam and high power rf.

  8. Ultra-low emittance beam generation using two-color ionization injection in a CO2 laser-driven plasma accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schroeder, Carl; Benedetti, Carlo; Bulanov, Stepan; Chen, Min; Esarey, Eric; Geddes, Cameron; Vay, J.; Yu, Lule; Leemans, Wim

    2015-01-01

    Ultra-low emittance (tens of nm) beams can be generated in a plasma accelerator using ionization injection of electrons into a wakefield. An all-optical method of beam generation uses two laser pulses of different colors. A long-wavelength drive laser pulse (with a large ponderomotive force and small peak electric field) is used to excite a large wakefield without fully ionizing a gas, and a short-wavelength injection laser pulse (with a small ponderomotive force and large peak electric field), co-propagating and delayed with respect to the pump laser, to ionize a fraction of the remaining bound electrons at a trapped wake phase, generating an electron beam that is accelerated in the wake. The trapping condition, the ionized electron distribution, and the trapped bunch dynamics are discussed. Expressions for the beam transverse emittance, parallel and orthogonal to the ionization laser polarization, are presented. An example is shown using a 10-micron CO 2 laser to drive the wake and a frequency-doubled Ti:Al 2 O 3 laser for ionization injection.

  9. Plasma based charged-particle accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bingham, R; Mendonca, J T; Shukla, P K

    2004-01-01

    Studies of charged-particle acceleration processes remain one of the most important areas of research in laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas. In this paper, we present the underlying physics and the present status of high gradient and high energy plasma accelerators. We will focus on the acceleration of charged particles to relativistic energies by plasma waves that are created by intense laser and particle beams. The generation of relativistic plasma waves by intense lasers or electron beams in plasmas is important in the quest for producing ultra-high acceleration gradients for accelerators. With the development of compact short pulse high brightness lasers and electron positron beams, new areas of studies for laser/particle beam-matter interactions is opening up. A number of methods are being pursued vigorously to achieve ultra-high acceleration gradients. These include the plasma beat wave accelerator mechanism, which uses conventional long pulse (∼100 ps) modest intensity lasers (I ∼ 10 14 -10 16 W cm -2 ), the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA), which uses the new breed of compact high brightness lasers ( 10 18 W cm -2 , the self-modulated LWFA concept, which combines elements of stimulated Raman forward scattering, and electron acceleration by nonlinear plasma waves excited by relativistic electron and positron bunches. In the ultra-high intensity regime, laser/particle beam-plasma interactions are highly nonlinear and relativistic, leading to new phenomena such as the plasma wakefield excitation for particle acceleration, relativistic self-focusing and guiding of laser beams, high-harmonic generation, acceleration of electrons, positrons, protons and photons. Fields greater than 1 GV cm -1 have been generated with particles being accelerated to 200 MeV over a distance of millimetre. Plasma wakefields driven by positron beams at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center facility have accelerated the tail of the positron beam. In the near future

  10. Accurate modeling of the hose instability in plasma wakefield accelerators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehrling, T. J.; Benedetti, C.; Schroeder, C. B.; Martinez de la Ossa, A.; Osterhoff, J.; Esarey, E.; Leemans, W. P.

    2018-05-01

    Hosing is a major challenge for the applicability of plasma wakefield accelerators and its modeling is therefore of fundamental importance to facilitate future stable and compact plasma-based particle accelerators. In this contribution, we present a new model for the evolution of the plasma centroid, which enables the accurate investigation of the hose instability in the nonlinear blowout regime. It paves the road for more precise and comprehensive studies of hosing, e.g., with drive and witness beams, which were not possible with previous models.

  11. Experiments on resonator concept of plasma wakefield accelerator driven by a train of relativistic electron bunches

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiselev, V.A.; Linnik, A.F.; Mirny, V. I; Onishchenko, I.N.; Uskov, V.V.

    2008-01-01

    The experimental installation was elaborated to increase plasma wakefield amplitude by means of using plasma resonator that allows all bunches of the train to participate in wakefield build-up contrary to waveguide case, in which due to group velocity effect only a part of the bunches participates. Experiments on plasma producing with resonant density, at which a coincidence of the plasma frequency and bunch repetition frequency is provided, are carried out. The first results of the measurements of beam energy loss on plasma wakefield excitation and energy gain by accelerated electrons are presented

  12. Development of Z-pinch optical guiding for laser-plasma accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hosokai, Tomonao; Kando, Masaki; Dewa, Hideki; Kotaki, Hideyuki; Kondo, Shuji; Kanazawa, Shuhei; Nakajima, Kazuhisa; Horioka, Kazuhiko

    2000-01-01

    We have proposed optical guiding of intense laser pulse by fast Z-pinch for channel guided laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). It has been developed based on capillary discharge-pumped X-ray laser technique. The discharge driven by current of 4.8 kA with a rise time of 15 ns through preionized helium gas could produce an uniform guiding channel with good reproducibility. With this new guiding method an intense Ti-Sapphire laser pulse (λ=790 nm, 2.2 TW, 90 fs, 1 x 10 17 W/cm 2 ) was transported through the channel over a distance of 2 cm corresponding to 12.5 times the Rayleigh length. (author)

  13. Ion Acceleration by Ultra-intense Laser Pulse Interacting with Double-layer Near-critical Density Plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gu, Y. J.; Kong, Q.; Li, X. F.; Yu, Q.; Wang, P. X.; Kawata, S.; Izumiyama, T.; Nagashima, T.; Takano, M.; Barada, D.; Ma, Y. Y.

    2016-01-01

    A collimated ion beam is generated through the interaction between ultra-intense laser pulse and a double layer plasma. The maximum energy is above 1 GeV and the total charge of high energy protons is about several tens of nC/μm. The double layer plasma is combined with an underdense plasma and a thin overdense one. The wakefield traps and accelerates a bunch of electrons to high energy in the first underdense slab. When the well collimated electron beam accelerated by the wakefield penetrates through the second overdense slab, it enhances target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) and breakout after-burner (BOA) regimes. The mechanism is simulated and analyzed by 2.5 dimensional Particle-in-cell code. Compared with single target TNSA or BOA, both the acceleration gradient and energy transfer efficiency are higher in the double layer regime. (paper)

  14. A high-repetition rate LWFA for studies of laser propagation and electron generation

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Zhaohan; Easter, James; Hou, Bixue; Krushelnick, Karl; Nees, John; Thomas, Alec

    2010-11-01

    Advances in ultrafast optics today have enabled laser systems to deliver ever shorter and more intense pulses. When focused, such laser pulses can easily exceed relativistic intensities where the wakefield created by the strong laser electric field can be used to accelerate electrons. Laser wakefield acceleration of electrons holds promise for future compact electron accelerators or drivers of other radiation sources in many scientific, medical and engineering applications. We present experimental studies of laser wakefield acceleration using the λ-cubed laser at the University of Michigan -- a table-top high-power laser system operating at 500 Hz repetition rate. The high repetition rate allows statistical studies of laser propagation and electron acceleration which are not accessible with typical sub-0.1 Hz repetition rate systems. In addition, we compare the experiments with particle-in-cell simulations using the code OSIRIS.

  15. Pilot study of synchronization on a femtosecond scale between the electronic gun REGAE and a laser-plasma accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Titberidze, Mikheil

    2017-10-01

    Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) is a novel technique to accelerate charged particles. Acceleration is achieved by a high-power laser pulse transmitting a gas target where electrons and ions form a strong wakefield with gradients up to 100 GVm -1 . Hence, the size of the laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) is significantly smaller compared to conventional radio frequency (RF) accelerators, because its accelerating gradients are 3 orders of magnitude higher. At present, electron beams generated by LWFA do not satisfy all requirements to make them directly usable for applications such as LPA driven free-electron laser (FEL). Pointing stability and relatively high energy spread are the major limiting factors. Typically, plasma electrons are self-injected in the plasma wake which is created by a high-power laser. There is a lack of control for the injection process and there is no direct access for diagnostics. In order to overcome these challenges and better understand the overall LWFA process, external injection experiments are planned at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in the framework of the Laboratory for Laser and beam-driven plasma Acceleration (LAOLA) collaboration. Thus, well characterized and ultrashort (< 10 fs) electron bunches from the conventional RF accelerator Relativistic Electron Gun for Atomic Exploration (REGAE) will be injected into the laser driven plasma wake. This approach allows to reconstruct and map the plasma wakefield by post diagnosing the injected electron bunches by measuring the energy spectra of it for different injection times. To conduct such a pump-probe type of experiment, synchronization with fs accuracy is required between the electron bunches from REGAE and the high-power driver laser. Two main aspects of the laser synchronization are presented in this thesis. First, a detailed experimental investigation of the conventional, fast photodiode based direct conversion laser-to-RF synchronization setup and its limitations are

  16. Pilot study of synchronization on a femtosecond scale between the electronic gun REGAE and a laser-plasma accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Titberidze, Mikheil

    2017-10-15

    Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) is a novel technique to accelerate charged particles. Acceleration is achieved by a high-power laser pulse transmitting a gas target where electrons and ions form a strong wakefield with gradients up to 100 GVm{sup -1}. Hence, the size of the laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) is significantly smaller compared to conventional radio frequency (RF) accelerators, because its accelerating gradients are 3 orders of magnitude higher. At present, electron beams generated by LWFA do not satisfy all requirements to make them directly usable for applications such as LPA driven free-electron laser (FEL). Pointing stability and relatively high energy spread are the major limiting factors. Typically, plasma electrons are self-injected in the plasma wake which is created by a high-power laser. There is a lack of control for the injection process and there is no direct access for diagnostics. In order to overcome these challenges and better understand the overall LWFA process, external injection experiments are planned at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in the framework of the Laboratory for Laser and beam-driven plasma Acceleration (LAOLA) collaboration. Thus, well characterized and ultrashort (< 10 fs) electron bunches from the conventional RF accelerator Relativistic Electron Gun for Atomic Exploration (REGAE) will be injected into the laser driven plasma wake. This approach allows to reconstruct and map the plasma wakefield by post diagnosing the injected electron bunches by measuring the energy spectra of it for different injection times. To conduct such a pump-probe type of experiment, synchronization with fs accuracy is required between the electron bunches from REGAE and the high-power driver laser. Two main aspects of the laser synchronization are presented in this thesis. First, a detailed experimental investigation of the conventional, fast photodiode based direct conversion laser-to-RF synchronization setup and its limitations

  17. Small-scale laser based electron accelerators for biology and medicine: a comparative study of the biological effectiveness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Labate, Luca; Andreassi, Maria Grazia; Baffigi, Federica; Basta, Giuseppina; Bizzarri, Ranieri; Borghini, Andrea; Candiano, Giuliana C.; Casarino, Carlo; Cresci, Monica; Di Martino, Fabio; Fulgentini, Lorenzo; Ghetti, Francesco; Gilardi, Maria Carla; Giulietti, Antonio; Köster, Petra; Lenci, Francesco; Levato, Tadzio; Oishi, Yuji; Russo, Giorgio; Sgarbossa, Antonella; Traino, Claudio; Gizzi, Leonida A.

    2013-05-01

    Laser-driven electron accelerators based on the Laser Wakefield Acceleration process has entered a mature phase to be considered as alternative devices to conventional radiofrequency linear accelerators used in medical applications. Before entering the medical practice, however, deep studies of the radiobiological effects of such short bunches as the ones produced by laser-driven accelerators have to be performed. Here we report on the setup, characterization and first test of a small-scale laser accelerator for radiobiology experiments. A brief description of the experimental setup will be given at first, followed by an overview of the electron bunch characterization, in particular in terms of dose delivered to the samples. Finally, the first results from the irradiation of biological samples will be briefly discussed.

  18. Ultrafast terawatt laser sources for high-field particle acceleration and short wavelength generation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Downer, M.C.

    1996-01-01

    The Laser Sources working group concerned itself with recent advances in and future requirements for the development of laser sources relevant to high-energy physics (HEP) colliders, small scale accelerators, and the generation of short wave-length radiation. We heavily emphasized pulsed terawatt peak power laser sources for several reasons. First, their development over the past five years has been rapid and multi-faceted, and has made relativistic light intensity available to the advanced accelerator community, as well as the wider physics community, for the first time. Secondly, they have strongly impacted plasma-based accelerator research over the past two years, producing the first experimental demonstrations of the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) in both its resonantly-driven and self-modulated forms. Thirdly, their average power and wall-plug efficiency currently fall well short of projected requirements for future accelerators and other high average power applications, but show considerable promise for improving substantially over the next few years. A review of this rapidly emerging laser technology in the context of advanced accelerator research is therefore timely

  19. Advanced Accelerator Test Facility (AATF) upgrade plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gai, W.; Ho, C.; Konecny, R.

    1989-01-01

    We have successfully demonstrated the principles of wake-field acceleration using structures (cavity, dielectric) and plasmas as wake-field devices using the AATF at Argonne National Laboratory. Due to the limited driver electron pulse intensity and relative long pulse length, only modest accelerating gradients were observed. In order to study the wake field effects in much greater detail and demonstrate the feasibility of wake-field accelerator for high energy physics, we are considering construction of a laser photocathode injector on the existing 20 MeV Chem-Linac to produce very intense and short electron pulses. 10 refs., 5 figs

  20. Numerical Verification of the Power Transfer and Wakefield Coupling in the CLIC Two-Beam Accelerator

    CERN Document Server

    Candel, Arno; NG, C; Rawat, V; Schussman, G; Ko, K; Syratchev, I; Grudiev, A; Wuensch, W

    2011-01-01

    The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) provides a path to a multi-TeV accelerator to explore the energy frontier of High Energy Physics. Its two-beam accelerator (TBA) concept envisions complex 3D structures, which must be modeled to high accuracy so that simulation results can be directly used to prepare CAD drawings for machining. The required simulations include not only the fundamental mode properties of the accelerating structures but also the Power Extraction and Transfer Structure (PETS), as well as the coupling between the two systems. Time-domain simulations will be performed to understand pulse formation, wakefield damping, fundamental power transfer and wakefield coupling in these structures. Applying SLAC’s parallel finite element code suite, these large-scale problems will be solved on some of the largest supercomputers available. The results will help to identify potential issues and provide new insights on the design, leading to further improvements on the novel two-beam accelerator scheme.

  1. Electron trapping and acceleration by the plasma wakefield of a self-modulating proton beam

    CERN Document Server

    Lotov, K.V.; Petrenko, A.V.; Amorim, L.D.; Vieira, J.; Fonseca, R.A.; Silva, L.O.; Gschwendtner, E.; Muggli, P.

    2014-01-01

    It is shown that co-linear injection of electrons or positrons into the wakefield of the self-modulating particle beam is possible and ensures high energy gain. The witness beam must co-propagate with the tail part of the driver, since the plasma wave phase velocity there can exceed the light velocity, which is necessary for efficient acceleration. If the witness beam is many wakefield periods long, then the trapped charge is limited by beam loading effects. The initial trapping is better for positrons, but at the acceleration stage a considerable fraction of positrons is lost from the wave. For efficient trapping of electrons, the plasma boundary must be sharp, with the density transition region shorter than several centimeters. Positrons are not susceptible to the initial plasma density gradient.

  2. On electron betatron motion and electron injection in laser wakefield accelerators

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Matsuoka, T.; McGuffey, C.; Cummings, P.G.; Bulanov, S.S.; Chvykov, V.; Dollar, F.; Horovitz, Y.; Kalinchenko, Galina; Krushelnick, K.; Rousseau, P.; Thomas, A.G.R.; Yanovsky, V.; Maksimchuk, A.

    2015-01-01

    Roč. 56, č. 8 (2015), s. 1-8 ISSN 0741-3335 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : accelerators * beams and electromagnetism * nuclear physics * plasma physics Subject RIV: BH - Optics, Masers, Lasers Impact factor: 2.404, year: 2015

  3. The Experimental Stand for Research of Wakefield Method of Charged Particles Acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiselev, V.A.; Linnik, A.F.; Onishchenko, I.N.; Onishchenko, N.I.; Sotnikov, G.V.; Uskov, V.V.

    2006-01-01

    The experimental installation and diagnostic equipment with motivation to use for various researches of wakefield method of charged particles acceleration both in plasma and in dielectric structure has been described. The main parameters of a sequence of short relativistic electron bunch and values of physical characteristics of slow-down structures have been presented

  4. PIC simulation of electron acceleration in an underdense plasma

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S Darvish Molla

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available One of the interesting Laser-Plasma phenomena, when the laser power is high and ultra intense, is the generation of large amplitude plasma waves (Wakefield and electron acceleration. An intense electromagnetic laser pulse can create plasma oscillations through the action of the nonlinear pondermotive force. electrons trapped in the wake can be accelerated to high energies, more than 1 TW. Of the wide variety of methods for generating a regular electric field in plasmas with strong laser radiation, the most attractive one at the present time is the scheme of the Laser Wake Field Accelerator (LWFA. In this method, a strong Langmuir wave is excited in the plasma. In such a wave, electrons are trapped and can acquire relativistic energies, accelerated to high energies. In this paper the PIC simulation of wakefield generation and electron acceleration in an underdense plasma with a short ultra intense laser pulse is discussed. 2D electromagnetic PIC code is written by FORTRAN 90, are developed, and the propagation of different electromagnetic waves in vacuum and plasma is shown. Next, the accuracy of implementation of 2D electromagnetic code is verified, making it relativistic and simulating the generating of wakefield and electron acceleration in an underdense plasma. It is shown that when a symmetric electromagnetic pulse passes through the plasma, the longitudinal field generated in plasma, at the back of the pulse, is weaker than the one due to an asymmetric electromagnetic pulse, and thus the electrons acquire less energy. About the asymmetric pulse, when front part of the pulse has smaller time rise than the back part of the pulse, a stronger wakefield generates, in plasma, at the back of the pulse, and consequently the electrons acquire more energy. In an inverse case, when the rise time of the back part of the pulse is bigger in comparison with that of the back part, a weaker wakefield generates and this leads to the fact that the electrons

  5. Initial results of the new high intensity electron gun at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Conde, M. E.; Gai, W.; Konecny, R.; Power, J. G.; Schoessow, P.; Sun, X.

    2000-01-01

    The authors report on the status of the new short bunch, high intensity electron gun at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator. The 1-1/2 cell L-band photocathode RF gun is expected to produce 10--100 nC bunches with 2--5 ps rms pulse length and normalized emittance less than 100 mm mrad. The beam energy at the exit of the gun cavity will be in the range 7.5--10 MeV. A standing-wave linac structure operating at the same frequency (1.3 GHz) will increase the beam energy to about 15 MeV. This beam will be used in wakefield acceleration experiments with dielectric loaded structures. These travelling-wave dielectric loaded structures, operating at 7.8 and 15.6 GHz, will be excited by the propagation of single bunches or by trains of up to 32 electron bunches

  6. Superluminous laser pulse in an active medium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fisher, D.L.; Tajima, T.

    1993-12-01

    Physical conditions are obtained to make the propagation velocity of a laser pulse and thus the phase velocity of the excited wake be at any desired value, including that equal to or greater than the speed of light. The provision of an active-plasma laser medium with an appropriately shaped pulse allows not only replenishment of laser energy loss to the wakefield but also acceleration of the group velocity of photons. A stationary solitary solution in the accelerated frame is obtained from the model equations and simulations thereof for the laser, plasma and atoms. This approach has applications in photonics and telecommunications as well as wakefield accelerators

  7. Betatron radiation based diagnostics for plasma wakefield accelerated electron beams at the SPARC-LAB test facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shpakov, V.; Anania, M.P.; Biagioni, A.; Chiadroni, E. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Cianchi, A. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); “Tor Vergata” University, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome (Italy); Curcio, A. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Dabagov, S. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Leninskiy Prospekt 53, 119991 Moscow (Russian Federation); NRNU “MEPhI”, Kashirskoe highway 31, 115409 Moscow (Russian Federation); Ferrario, M.; Filippi, F. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Marocchino, A. [Dipartimento SBAI Universitá di Roma ‘La Sapienza’, via Antonio Scarpa 14/16, 00161 Rome (Italy); Paroli, B. [INFN - MI, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milan (Italy); Pompili, R. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Rossi, A.R. [INFN - MI, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milan (Italy); Zigler, A. [Racah Institute of Physics Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)

    2016-09-01

    Recent progress with wake-field acceleration has shown a great potential in providing high gradient acceleration fields, while the quality of the beams remains relatively poor. Precise knowledge of the beam size at the exit from the plasma and matching conditions for the externally injected beams are the key for improvement of beam quality. Betatron radiation emitted by the beam during acceleration in the plasma is a powerful tool for the transverse beam size measurement, being also non-intercepting. In this work we report on the technical solutions chosen at SPARC-LAB for such diagnostics tool, along with expected parameters of betatron radiation. - Highlights: • The betatron radiation parameters in SPARC-LAB wakefiled experiments were studied. • The differences with betatron radiation in other wake-field experiments were highlighted. • The solution for betatron radiation detection was investigated.

  8. Betatron radiation based diagnostics for plasma wakefield accelerated electron beams at the SPARC-LAB test facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shpakov, V.; Anania, M.P.; Biagioni, A.; Chiadroni, E.; Cianchi, A.; Curcio, A.; Dabagov, S.; Ferrario, M.; Filippi, F.; Marocchino, A.; Paroli, B.; Pompili, R.; Rossi, A.R.; Zigler, A.

    2016-01-01

    Recent progress with wake-field acceleration has shown a great potential in providing high gradient acceleration fields, while the quality of the beams remains relatively poor. Precise knowledge of the beam size at the exit from the plasma and matching conditions for the externally injected beams are the key for improvement of beam quality. Betatron radiation emitted by the beam during acceleration in the plasma is a powerful tool for the transverse beam size measurement, being also non-intercepting. In this work we report on the technical solutions chosen at SPARC-LAB for such diagnostics tool, along with expected parameters of betatron radiation. - Highlights: • The betatron radiation parameters in SPARC-LAB wakefiled experiments were studied. • The differences with betatron radiation in other wake-field experiments were highlighted. • The solution for betatron radiation detection was investigated.

  9. Wakefield and Beam Centering Measurements of a Damped and Detuned X-Band Accelerator Structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adolphsen, Chris

    1999-01-01

    In the Next Linear Collider (NLC) design, X-Band (11.4 GHz) accelerator structures are used to accelerate multibunch beams to several hundred GeV. Although these structures allow for high gradient operation, their strong deflecting modes impose a number of operational constraints. In particular, the long-range transverse wakefields generated by the bunches need to be reduced by about two orders of magnitude to prevent significant beam breakup. During the past five years, a reduction scheme that employs both detuning and damping of the structure dipole modes has been developed to meet this requirement. Several prototype Damped and Detuned Structures (DDS) have been built to test and refine this scheme. The wakefield of the latest version, DDS3, has recently been measured in the Accelerator Structure Setup (ASSET) facility at SLAC. In this paper, we present these results together with predictions based on an equivalent circuit model of the structure. We also present ASSET studies in which the beam-induced dipole signals that are coupled out for damping purposes are used to center the beam in the structure

  10. Photoinjector optimization using a derivative-free, model-based trust-region algorithm for the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neveu, N.; Larson, J.; Power, J. G.; Spentzouris, L.

    2017-07-01

    Model-based, derivative-free, trust-region algorithms are increasingly popular for optimizing computationally expensive numerical simulations. A strength of such methods is their efficient use of function evaluations. In this paper, we use one such algorithm to optimize the beam dynamics in two cases of interest at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) facility. First, we minimize the emittance of a 1 nC electron bunch produced by the AWA rf photocathode gun by adjusting three parameters: rf gun phase, solenoid strength, and laser radius. The algorithm converges to a set of parameters that yield an emittance of 1.08 μm. Second, we expand the number of optimization parameters to model the complete AWA rf photoinjector (the gun and six accelerating cavities) at 40 nC. The optimization algorithm is used in a Pareto study that compares the trade-off between emittance and bunch length for the AWA 70MeV photoinjector.

  11. Wakefield effects in a linear collider

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bane, K.L.F.

    1986-12-01

    In this paper the wakefields for the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) accelerating structure are first discussed, and then some considerations dealing with the longitudinal wakefields are described. The main focus is on the effects of the transverse wakefield on the beam, including the case when there is an energy variation along the bunch. The use of an energy spread to inhibit emittance growth in a linac, indeed to damp the oscillations of the core of the bunch to below the unperturbed betatron oscillations, (in a process that is similar to Landau Damping) is qualitatively detailed. The example of the SLC, including errors, is also in detail

  12. Theory and measurements of emittance preservation in plasma wakefield acceleration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Frederico, Joel

    2016-12-01

    In this dissertation, we examine the preservation and measurement of emittance in the plasma wakefield acceleration blowout regime. Plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) is a revolutionary approach to accelerating charged particles that has been demonstrated to have the potential for gradients orders of magnitude greater than traditional approaches. The application of PWFA to the design of a linear collider will make new high energy physics research possible, but the design parameters must first be shown to be competitive with traditional methods. Emittance preservation is necessary in the design of a linear collider in order to maximize luminosity. We examine the conditions necessary for circular symmetry in the PWFA blowout regime, and demonstrate that current proposals meet these bounds. We also present an application of beam lamentation which describes the process of beam parameter and emittance matching. We show that the emittance growth saturates as a consequence of energy spread in the beam. The initial beam parameters determine the amount of emittance growth, while the contribution of energy spread is negligible. We also present a model for ion motion in the presence of a beam that is much more dense than the plasma. By combining the model of ion motion and emittance growth, we find the emittance growth due to ion motion is minimal in the case of marginal ion motion. In addition, we present a simulation that validates the ion motion model, which is under further development to examine emittance growth of both marginal and pronounced ion motion. Finally, we present a proof-of-concept of an emittance measurement which may enable the analysis of emittance preservation in future PWFA experiments.

  13. Wakefield Band Partitioning in LINAC Structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, Roger M

    2003-01-01

    In the NLC project multiple bunches of electrons and positrons will be accelerated initially to a centre of mass of 500 GeV and later to 1 TeV or more. In the process of accelerating 192 bunches within a pulse train, wakefields are excited which kick the trailing bunches off axis and can cause luminosity dilution and BBU (Beam Break Up). Several structures to damp the wakefield have been designed and tested at SLAC and KEK and these have been found to successfully damp the wakefield [1]. However, these 2π/3 structures suffered from electrical breakdown and this has prompted us to explore lower group velocity structures operating at higher fundamental mode phase advances. The wakefield partitioning amongst the bands has been found to change markedly with increased phase advance. Here we report on general trends in the kick factor and associated wakefield band partitioning in dipole bands as a function of phase advance of the synchronous mode in linacs. These results are applicable to both TW (travelling wave) and SW (standing wave) structures

  14. Experimental and Theoretical Researches of a Resonator Concept of a Dielectric Wakefield Accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Onishchenko, I.N.; Kiselev, V.A.; Linnik, A.F.; Onishchenko, N.I.; Sotnikov, G.V.; Uskov, V.V.

    2006-01-01

    Wakefield excitation in a cylindrical dielectric waveguide or resonator by a regular sequence of electron bunches foe application to high-gradient particle acceleration has been investigated theoretically and experimentally using an electron linac 'ALMAZ-2' (4.5 MeV, 6.10 3 bunches of duration 60 ps and charge 0.32 nC each)

  15. En Route: next-generation laser-plasma-based electron accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hidding, Bernhard

    2008-05-01

    Accelerating electrons to relativistic energies is of fundamental interest, especially in particle physics. Today's accelerator technology, however, is limited by the maximum electric fields which can be created. This thesis presents results on various mechanisms aiming at exploiting the fields in focussed laser pulses and plasma waves for electron acceleration, which can be orders of magnitude higher than with conventional accelerators. With relativistic, underdense laser-plasma-interaction, quasimonoenergetic electron bunches with energies up to ∼50 MeV and normalized emittances of the order of 5mmmrad have been generated. This was achieved by focussing the ∼80 fs, 1 J pulses of the JETI-laser at the FSU Jena to intensities of several 10 19 W=cm 2 into gas jets. The experimental observations could be explained via ''bubble acceleration'', which is based on self-injection and acceleration of electrons in a highly nonlinear breaking plasma wave. For the rst time, this bubble acceleration was achieved explicitly in the self-modulated laser wakefield regime (SMLWFA). This quasimonoenergetic SMLWFA-regime stands out by relaxing dramatically the requirements on the driving laser pulse necessary to trigger bubble acceleration. This is due to self-modulation of the laser pulse in high-density gas jets, leading to ultrashort laser pulse fragments capable of initiating bubble acceleration. Electron bunches with durations < or similar 5 fs can thus be created, which is at least an order of magnitude shorter than with conventional accelerator technology. In addition, more than one laser pulse fragment can be powerful enough to drive a bubble. Distinct double peaks have been observed in the electron spectra, indicating that two quasimonoenergetic electron bunches separated by only few tens of fs have formed. This is backed up by PIC-Simulations (Particle-in-Cell). These results underline the feasibility of the construction of small table-top accelerators, while at the

  16. Summary of Working Group 7 on 'Exotic acceleration schemes'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tajima, T.

    2001-01-01

    Exotic concepts of advanced acceleration technologies have been explored by Group 7 under the leadership of T. Tajima and T. Smith (who could not attend) at the AAC. Explored concepts are: (1) proton (ion) acceleration by laser, (2) additional ion acceleration methods, (3) crystal x-rays and acceleration, (4) vacuum acceleration, (5) active medium acceleration, and (6) some advanced methods in laser wakefield. The first subject of laser photon acceleration was discussed jointly with Group 1 and in the end the participants came to an agreement on the mechanism of proton acceleration by laser irradiation

  17. The UCLA/SLAC Ultra-High Gradient Cerenkov Wakefield Accelerator Experiment

    CERN Document Server

    Thompson, Matthew C; Hogan, Mark; Ischebeck, Rasmus; Muggli, Patric; Rosenzweig, James E; Scott, A; Siemann, Robert; Travish, Gil; Walz, Dieter; Yoder, Rodney

    2005-01-01

    An experiment is planned to study the performance of dielectric Cerenkov wakefield accelerating structures at extremely high gradients in the GV/m range. This new UCLA/SLAC collaboration will take advantage of the unique SLAC FFTB electron beam and its demonstrated ultra-short pulse lengths and high currents (e.g., sz = 20 μm at Q = 3 nC). The electron beam will be focused down and sent through varying lengths of fused silica capillary tubing with two different sizes: ID = 200 μm / OD = 325 μm and ID = 100 μm / OD = 325 μm. The pulse length of the electron beam will be varied in order to alter the accelerating gradient and probe the breakdown threshold of the dielectric structures. In addition to breakdown studies, we plan to collect and measure coherent Cerenkov radiation emitted from the capillary tube to gain information about the strength of the accelerating fields. Status and progress on the experiment are reported.

  18. Beam Transfer Line Design for a Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE) at the CERN SPS

    CERN Document Server

    Bracco, C; Brethoux, D; Clerc, V; Goddard, B; Gschwendtner, E; Jensen, L K; Kosmicki, A; Le Godec, G; Meddahi, M; Muggli, P; Mutin, C; Osborne, O; Papastergiou, K; Pardons, A; Velotti, F M; Vincke, H

    2013-01-01

    The world’s first proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment (AWAKE) is presently being studied at CERN. The experimentwill use a high energy proton beam extracted from the SPS as driver. Two possible locations for installing the AWAKE facility were considered: the West Area and the CNGS beam line. The previous transfer line from the SPS to the West Area was completely dismantled in 2005 and would need to be fully re-designed and re-built. For this option, geometric constraints for radiation protection reasons would limit the maximum proton beam energy to 300 GeV. The existing CNGS line could be used by applying only minor changes to the lattice for the final focusing and the interface between the proton beam and the laser, required for plasma ionisation and bunch-modulation seeding. The beam line design studies performed for the two options are presented.

  19. Acceleration of electrons at wakefield excitation by a sequence of relativistic electron bunches in dielectric resonator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiselev, V.A.; Linnik, A.F.; Mirnyj, V.I.; Onishchenko, I.N.; Uskov, V.V.

    2009-01-01

    Method is proposed to divide a regular sequence of electron bunches into parts of bunches driving wakefield and witness bunches, which should be accelerated. It allows to avoid the necessity of additional electron accelerator for witness bunches producing and the necessity of precision short time techniques of injection phase adjusting. The idea concludes to the frequency detuning between bunches repetition frequency and the frequency of the fundamental mode of excited wakefield. Experiments were carried out on the linear resonant accelerator 'Almaz-2', which injected in the dielectric resonator a sequence of 6000 short bunches of relativistic electrons with energy 4.5 MeV, charge 0.16 nC and duration 60 psec each, the repetition interval 360 ps. Frequency detuning was entered by change of frequency of the master generator of the klystron within the limits of one percent so that the phase taper on the length of bunches sequence achieved 2π. Energy spectra of electrons of bunches sequence, which have been propagated through the dielectric resonator are measured and analyzed

  20. Particle-in-cell simulations of plasma accelerators and electron-neutral collisions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David L. Bruhwiler

    2001-10-01

    Full Text Available We present 2D simulations of both beam-driven and laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerators, using the object-oriented particle-in-cell code XOOPIC, which is time explicit, fully electromagnetic, and capable of running on massively parallel supercomputers. Simulations of laser-driven wakefields with low \\(∼10^{16} W/cm^{2}\\ and high \\(∼10^{18} W/cm^{2}\\ peak intensity laser pulses are conducted in slab geometry, showing agreement with theory and fluid simulations. Simulations of the E-157 beam wakefield experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, in which a 30 GeV electron beam passes through 1 m of preionized lithium plasma, are conducted in cylindrical geometry, obtaining good agreement with previous work. We briefly describe some of the more significant modifications to XOOPIC required by this work, and summarize the issues relevant to modeling relativistic electron-neutral collisions in a particle-in-cell code.

  1. The electron accelerator for the AWAKE experiment at CERN

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pepitone, K., E-mail: kevin.pepitone@cern.ch [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Doebert, S., E-mail: steffen.doebert@cern.ch [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Burt, G. [The University of Lancaster, Lancaster (United Kingdom); Chevallay, E.; Chritin, N.; Delory, C.; Fedosseev, V.; Hessler, Ch.; McMonagle, G. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Mete, O. [The University of Manchester, Manchester (United Kingdom); Verzilov, V. [Triumf, Vancouver (Canada); Apsimon, R. [The University of Lancaster, Lancaster (United Kingdom)

    2016-09-01

    The AWAKE collaboration prepares a proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment using the SPS beam at CERN. A long proton bunch extracted from the SPS interacts with a high power laser and a 10 m long rubidium vapour plasma cell to create strong wakefields allowing sustained electron acceleration. The electron bunch to probe these wakefields is supplied by a 20 MeV electron accelerator. The electron accelerator consists of an RF-gun and a short booster structure. This electron source should provide beams with intensities between 0.1 and 1 nC, bunch lengths between 0.3 and 3 ps and an emittance of the order of 2 mm mrad. The wide range of parameters should cope with the uncertainties and future prospects of the planned experiments. The layout of the electron accelerator, its instrumentation and beam dynamics simulations are presented.

  2. Wakefield issue and its impact on X-ray photon pulse in the SXFEL test facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Song, Minghao; Li, Kai [Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800 (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China); Feng, Chao [Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800 (China); Deng, Haixiao, E-mail: denghaixiao@sinap.ac.cn [Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800 (China); Liu, Bo; Wang, Dong [Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800 (China)

    2016-06-21

    Besides the designed beam acceleration, the energy of electrons is changed by the longitudinal wakefields in a real free-electron laser (FEL) facility, which may degrade FEL performances from the theoretical expectation. In this paper, with the help of simulation codes, the wakefields induced beam energy loss in the sophisticated undulator section is calculated for Shanghai soft X-ray FEL, which is a two-stage seeded FEL test facility. While the 1st stage 44 nm FEL output is almost not affected by the wakefields, it is found that a beam energy loss about 0.8 MeV degrades the peak brightness of the 2nd stage 8.8 nm FEL by a factor of 1.6, which however can be compensated by a magnetic field fine tuning of each undulator segment. And the longitudinal coherence of the 8.8 nm FEL output illustrates a slight degradation, because of the beam energy curvatures induced by the wakefields.

  3. The Energy Selection System for the laser-accelerated proton beams at ELI-Beamlines

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Tramontana, A.; Candiano, G.; Carpinelli, M.; Cirrone, G.A.P.; Cuttone, G.; Bijan Jia, S.; Korn, Georg; Licciardello, T.; Maggiore, Mario; Manti, L.; Margarone, Daniele; Pisciotta, P.; Romano, F.; Stancampiano, C.; Schillaci, Francesco; Scuderi, Valentina

    2014-01-01

    Roč. 9, May (2014), s. 1-11 ISSN 1748-0221 R&D Projects: GA MŠk ED1.1.00/02.0061; GA MŠk EE2.3.20.0279; GA MŠk EE.2.3.20.0087 Grant - others:ELI Beamlines(XE) CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0061; LaserZdroj (OP VK 3)(XE) CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0279; OP VK 2 LaserGen(XE) CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0087 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : instrumentation for hadron therapy * wake-field acceleration (laser-driven, electron-driven) * plasma diagnostics * charged-particle spectroscopy Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics Impact factor: 1.399, year: 2014

  4. Bunch decompression for laser-plasma driven free-electron laser demonstration schemes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. Seggebrock

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs require a very high electron beam quality in terms of emittance and energy spread. Since 2004 high quality electrons produced by laser-wakefield accelerators have been demonstrated, but the electron quality up to now did not allow the operation of a compact x-ray FEL using these electrons. Maier et al. [Phys. Rev. X 2, 031019 (2012PRXHAE2160-330810.1103/PhysRevX.2.031019] suggested a concept for a proof-of-principle experiment allowing FEL operation in the vacuum ultraviolet range based on an optimized undulator and bunch decompression using electron bunches from a laser-plasma accelerator as currently available. In this paper we discuss in more detail how a chicane can be used as a bunch stretcher instead of a bunch compressor to allow the operation of a laser-wakefield accelerator driven FEL using currently available electrons. A scaling characterizing the impact of bunch decompression on the gain length is derived and the feasibility of the concept is tested numerically in a demanding scenario.

  5. Ultra-low emittance electron beam generation using ionization injection in a plasma beatwave accelerator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schroeder, Carl; Benedetti, Carlo; Esarey, Eric; Leemans, Wim

    2017-10-01

    Ultra-low emittance beams can be generated using ionization injection of electrons into a wakefield excited by a plasma beatwave accelerator. This all-optical method of electron beam generation uses three laser pulses of different colors. Two long-wavelength laser pulses, with frequency difference equal to the plasma frequency, resonantly drive a plasma wave without fully ionizing a gas. A short-wavelength injection laser pulse (with a small ponderomotive force and large peak electric field), co-propagating and delayed with respect to the beating long-wavelength lasers, ionizes a fraction of the remaining bound electrons at a trapped wake phase, generating an electron beam that is accelerated in the wakefield. Using the beating of long-wavelength pulses to generate the wakefield enables atomically-bound electrons to remain at low ionization potentials, reducing the required amplitude of the ionization pulse, and, hence, the initial transverse momentum and emittance of the injected electrons. An example is presented using two lines of a CO2 laser to form a plasma beatwave accelerator to drive the wake and a frequency-doubled Ti:Al2O3 laser for ionization injection. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

  6. Brookhaven National Laboratory's Accelerator Test Facility: research highlights and plans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pogorelsky, I. V.; Ben-Zvi, I.

    2014-08-01

    The Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at Brookhaven National Laboratory has served as a user facility for accelerator science for over a quarter of a century. In fulfilling this mission, the ATF offers the unique combination of a high-brightness 80 MeV electron beam that is synchronized to a 1 TW picosecond CO2 laser. We unveil herein our plan to considerably expand the ATF's floor space with an upgrade of the electron beam's energy to 300 MeV and the CO2 laser's peak power to 100 TW. This upgrade will propel the ATF even further to the forefront of research on advanced accelerators and radiation sources, supporting the most innovative ideas in this field. We discuss emerging opportunities for scientific breakthroughs, including the following: plasma wakefield acceleration studies in research directions already active at the ATF; laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA), where the longer laser wavelengths are expected to engender a proportional increase in the beam's charge while our linac will assure, for the first time, the opportunity to undertake detailed studies of seeding and staging of the LWFA; proton acceleration to the 100-200 MeV level, which is essential for medical applications; and others.

  7. γ -Ray Generation from Plasma Wakefield Resonant Wiggler

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lei, Bifeng; Wang, Jingwei; Kharin, Vasily; Zepf, Matt; Rykovanov, Sergey

    2018-03-01

    A flexible gamma-ray radiation source based on the resonant laser-plasma wakefield wiggler is proposed. The wiggler is achieved by inducing centroid oscillations of a short laser pulse in a plasma channel. Electrons (self-)injected in such a wakefield experience both oscillations due to the transverse electric fields and energy gain due to the longitudinal electric field. The oscillations are significantly enhanced when the laser pulse centroid oscillations are in resonance with the electron betatron oscillations, extending the radiation spectrum to the gamma-ray range. The polarization of the radiation can be easily controlled by adjusting the injection of the laser pulse into the plasma channel.

  8. On wakefields with two-dimensional planar geometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chao, A.W.; Bane, K.L.F.

    1996-10-01

    In order to reach higher acceleration gradients in linear accelerators, it is advantageous to use a higher accelerating RF frequency, which in turn requires smaller accelerating structures. As the structure size becomes smaller, rectangular structures become increasingly interesting because they are easier to construct than cylindrically symmetric ones. One drawback of small structures, however, is that the wakefields generated by the beam in such structures tend to be strong. Recently, it has been suggested that one way of ameliorating this problem is to use rectangular structures that are very flat and to use flat beams. In the limiting case of a very flat planar geometry, the problem resembles a purely two-dimensional (2-D) problem, the wakefields of which have been studied

  9. Non-Maxwellian electron distributions resulting from direct laser acceleration in near-critical plasmas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. Toncian

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The irradiation of few-nm-thick targets by a finite-contrast high-intensity short-pulse laser results in a strong pre-expansion of these targets at the arrival time of the main pulse. The targets decompress to near and lower than critical densities with plasmas extending over few micrometers, i.e. multiple wavelengths. The interaction of the main pulse with such a highly localized but inhomogeneous target leads to the generation of a short channel and further self-focusing of the laser beam. Experiments at the Glass Hybrid OPCPA Scaled Test-bed (GHOST laser system at University of Texas, Austin using such targets measured non-Maxwellian, peaked electron distribution with large bunch charge and high electron density in the laser propagation direction. These results are reproduced in 2D PIC simulations using the EPOCH code, identifying direct laser acceleration (DLA [1] as the responsible mechanism. This is the first time that DLA has been observed to produce peaked spectra as opposed to broad, Maxwellian spectra observed in earlier experiments [2]. This high-density electrons have potential applications as injector beams for a further wakefield acceleration stage as well as for pump-probe applications.

  10. Trapping and dark current in plasma-based accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schroder, C.B.; Esarey, E.; Shadwick, B.A.; Leemans, W.P.

    2004-01-01

    The trapping of thermal electrons in a nonlinear plasma wave of arbitrary phase velocity is investigated. The threshold plasma wave amplitude for trapping plasma electrons is calculated, thereby determining the fraction trapped and the expected dark current in a plasma-based accelerator. It is shown that the presence of a laser field (e.g., trapping in the self-modulated regime of the laser wakefield accelerator) increases the trapping threshold. Implications for experimental and numerical laser-plasma studies are discussed

  11. Transition from wakefield generation to soliton formation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holkundkar, Amol R.; Brodin, Gert

    2018-04-01

    It is well known that when a short laser pulse propagates in an underdense plasma, it induces longitudinal plasma oscillations at the plasma frequency after the pulse, typically referred to as the wakefield. However, for plasma densities approaching the critical density, wakefield generation is suppressed, and instead the EM-pulse (electromagnetic pulse) undergoes nonlinear self-modulation. In this article we have studied the transition from the wakefield generation to formation of quasi-solitons as the plasma density is increased. For this purpose we have applied a one-dimensional relativistic cold fluid model, which has also been compared with particle-in-cell simulations. A key result is that the energy loss of the EM-pulse due to wakefield generation has its maximum for a plasma density of the order 10% of the critical density, but that wakefield generation is sharply suppressed when the density is increased further.

  12. Argonne's new Wakefield Test Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Simpson, J.D.

    1992-01-01

    The first phase of a high current, short bunch length electron beam research facility, the AWA, is near completion at Argonne. At the heart of the facility is a photocathode based electron gun and accelerating sections designed to deliver 20 MeV pulses with up to 100 nC per pulse and with pulse lengths of approximately 15 ps (fw). Using a technique similar to that originated at Argonne's AATF facility, a separate weak probe pulse can be generated and used to diagnose wake effects produced by the intense pulses. Initial planned experiments include studies of plasma wakefields and dielectric wakefield devices, and expect to demonstrate large, useful accelerating gradients (> 100 MeV/m). Later phases of the facility will increase the drive bunch energy to more than 100 MeV to enable acceleration experiments up to the GeV range. Specifications, design details, and commissioning progress are presented

  13. Proposed development of novel diagnostics for intense, ultrafast laser-plasma experiments at JAEA-KPSI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bolton, Paul R.; Tatchyn, Roman; Fukuda, Yuji; Kando, Masaki; Daito, Izuru; Ma, Jinglong; Chen, Liming; Pirozhkov, Alexander; Tajima, Toshiki

    2007-01-01

    Development of new diagnostics is critical for future laser-plasma accelerators, laser-driven light sources and for x-ray FELs. Recent laser wakefield electron acceleration developments and novel beam-based light source schemes (such as free electron lasers) obviate the need for next generation ultrafast diagnostics, capable of temporal resolution of a few femtoseconds (and in some cases attoseconds) for laser pulses (high order harmonics), x-ray pulses and electron bunches. Single shot detection capability in noninvasive and parasitic modes is also important. Alterations of laser pulse spectra and the associated dynamics can be informative diagnostics. The portion of a high intensity laser pulse that is transmitted through a self-induced underdense plasma (such as in laser wakefield acceleration LWFA schemes) carries the effects of plasma processes it has experienced. A distinction between the self-modulated laser wakefield (SMLWF) acceleration regime and the forced laser wakefield (FLWF) acceleration regime is in the spectral signature of the transmitted ir laser pulse. The former regime generates sidebands from stimulated Raman forward scattering (SRS-F) and the latter exhibits general spectral broadening that evidences ir laser pulse compression. Transmitted spectral effects can diagnose these acceleration regimes. Existing noninvasive electro-optic (EO) schemes for detection of ultrashort electron bunches are limited by material properties to temporal resolution at the 50-100 femtosecond level. While timing jitter at conventional accelerators is of this order (or greater), single bunch longitudinal profile measurements can require improvement of at least an order of magnitude. A new FO technique is described here which monitors enhancement and associated dynamics of spectral components in a probe pulse. Three correlation schemes for detecting ultrashort x-ray pulses are described. Two-photon absorption in tailored ion targets is proposed for scanning auto

  14. ACE3P Computations of Wakefield Coupling in the CLIC Two-Beam Accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Candel, Arno

    2010-01-01

    The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) provides a path to a multi-TeV accelerator to explore the energy frontier of High Energy Physics. Its novel two-beam accelerator concept envisions rf power transfer to the accelerating structures from a separate high-current decelerator beam line consisting of power extraction and transfer structures (PETS). It is critical to numerically verify the fundamental and higher-order mode properties in and between the two beam lines with high accuracy and confidence. To solve these large-scale problems, SLAC's parallel finite element electromagnetic code suite ACE3P is employed. Using curvilinear conformal meshes and higher-order finite element vector basis functions, unprecedented accuracy and computational efficiency are achieved, enabling high-fidelity modeling of complex detuned structures such as the CLIC TD24 accelerating structure. In this paper, time-domain simulations of wakefield coupling effects in the combined system of PETS and the TD24 structures are presented. The results will help to identify potential issues and provide new insights on the design, leading to further improvements on the novel CLIC two-beam accelerator scheme.

  15. Limitation on the accelerating gradient of a wakefield excited by an ultrarelativistic electron beam in rubidium plasma

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Vafaei-Najafabadi

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available We have investigated the viability of using plasmas formed by ionization of high Z, low ionization potential element rubidium (Rb for beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. The Rb vapor column confined by argon (Ar buffer gas was used to reduce the expected limitation on the beam propagation length due to head erosion that was observed previously when a lower Z but higher ionization potential lithium vapor was used. However, injection of electrons into the wakefield due to ionization of Ar buffer gas and nonuniform ionization of Rb^{1+} to Rb^{2+} was a possible concern. In this paper we describe experimental results and the supporting simulations which indicate that such ionization of Ar and Rb^{1+} in the presence of combined fields of the beam and the wakefield inside the wake does indeed occur. Some of this charge accumulates in the accelerating region of the wake leading to the reduction of the electric field—an effect known as beam loading. The beam-loading effect is quantified by determining the average transformer ratio ⟨R⟩ which is the maximum energy gained divided by the maximum energy lost by the electrons in the bunch used to produce the wake. ⟨R⟩ is shown to depend on the propagation length and the quantity of the accumulated charge, indicating that the distributed injection of secondary Rb electrons is the main cause of beam loading in this experiment. The average transformer ratio is reduced from 1.5 to less than 1 as the excess charge from secondary ionization increased from 100 to 700 pC. The simulations show that while the decelerating field remains constant, the accelerating field is reduced from its unloaded value of 82 to 46  GeV/m due to this distributed injection of dark current into the wake.

  16. Phase space linearization and external injection of electron bunches into laser-driven plasma wakefields at REGAE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zeitler, Benno Michael Georg

    2017-01-01

    Laser Wake field Acceleration (LWFA) has the potential to become the next-generation acceleration technique for electrons. In particular, the large field gradients provided by these plasma-based accelerators are an appealing property, promising a significant reduction of size for future machines and user facilities. Despite the unique advantages of these sources, however, as of today, the produced electron bunches cannot yet compete in all beam quality criteria compared to conventional acceleration methods. Especially the stability in terms of beam pointing and energy gain, as well as a comparatively large energy spread of LWFA electron bunches require further advancement for their applicability. The accelerated particles are typically trapped from within the plasma which is used to create the large field gradients in the wake of a high-power laser. From this results a lack of control and access to observing the actual electron injection - and, consequently, a lack of experimental verification. To tackle this problem, the injection of external electrons into a plasma wakefield seems promising. In this case, the initial beam parameters are known, so that a back-calculation and reconstruction of the wakefield structure are feasible. Such an experiment is planned at the Relativistic Electron Gun for Atomic Exploration (REGAE). REGAE, which is located at DESY in Hamburg, is a small linear accelerator offering unique beam parameters compatible with the requirements of the planned experiment. The observations and results gained from such an external injection are expected to improve the beam quality and stability of internal injection variants, due to the broadened understanding of the underlying plasma dynamics. Furthermore, an external injection will always be required for so-called staging of multiple LWFA-driven cavities. Also, the demonstration of a suchlike merging of conventional and plasma accelerators gives rise to novel hybrid accelerators, where the matured

  17. Phase space linearization and external injection of electron bunches into laser-driven plasma wakefields at REGAE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zeitler, Benno Michael Georg [Hamburg Univ. (Germany). Fakultaet fuer Mathematik, Informatik und Naturwissenschaften

    2017-01-15

    Laser Wake field Acceleration (LWFA) has the potential to become the next-generation acceleration technique for electrons. In particular, the large field gradients provided by these plasma-based accelerators are an appealing property, promising a significant reduction of size for future machines and user facilities. Despite the unique advantages of these sources, however, as of today, the produced electron bunches cannot yet compete in all beam quality criteria compared to conventional acceleration methods. Especially the stability in terms of beam pointing and energy gain, as well as a comparatively large energy spread of LWFA electron bunches require further advancement for their applicability. The accelerated particles are typically trapped from within the plasma which is used to create the large field gradients in the wake of a high-power laser. From this results a lack of control and access to observing the actual electron injection - and, consequently, a lack of experimental verification. To tackle this problem, the injection of external electrons into a plasma wakefield seems promising. In this case, the initial beam parameters are known, so that a back-calculation and reconstruction of the wakefield structure are feasible. Such an experiment is planned at the Relativistic Electron Gun for Atomic Exploration (REGAE). REGAE, which is located at DESY in Hamburg, is a small linear accelerator offering unique beam parameters compatible with the requirements of the planned experiment. The observations and results gained from such an external injection are expected to improve the beam quality and stability of internal injection variants, due to the broadened understanding of the underlying plasma dynamics. Furthermore, an external injection will always be required for so-called staging of multiple LWFA-driven cavities. Also, the demonstration of a suchlike merging of conventional and plasma accelerators gives rise to novel hybrid accelerators, where the matured

  18. Brilliant radiation sources by laser-plasma accelerators and optical undulators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Debus, Alexander

    2012-09-06

    This thesis investigates the use of high-power lasers for synchrotron radiation sources with high brilliance, from the EUV to the hard X-ray spectral range. Hereby lasers accelerate electrons by laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA), act as optical undulators, or both. Experimental evidence shows for the first time that LWFA electron bunches are shorter than the driving laser and have a length scale comparable to the plasma wavelength. Furthermore, a first proof of principle experiment demonstrates that LWFA electrons can be exploited to generate undulator radiation. Building upon these experimental findings, as well as extensive numerical simulations of Thomson scattering, the theoretical foundations of a novel interaction geometry for laser-matter interaction are developed. This new method is very general and when tailored towards relativistically moving targets not being limited by the focusability (Rayleigh length) of the laser, while it does not require a waveguide. In a theoretical investigation of Thomson scattering, the optical analogue of undulator radiation, the limits of Thomson sources in scaling towards higher peak brilliances are highlighted. This leads to a novel method for generating brilliant, highly tunable X-ray sources, which is highly energy efficient by circumventing the laser Rayleigh limit through a novel traveling-wave Thomson scattering (TWTS) geometry. This new method suggests increases in X-ray photon yields of 2-3 orders of magnitudes using existing lasers and a way towards efficient, optical undulators to drive a free-electron laser. The results presented here extend far beyond the scope of this work. The possibility to use lasers as particle accelerators, as well as optical undulators, leads to very compact and energy efficient synchrotron sources. The resulting monoenergetic radiation of high brilliance in a range from extreme ultraviolet (EUV) to hard X-ray radiation is of fundamental importance for basic research, medical

  19. Brilliant radiation sources by laser-plasma accelerators and optical undulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Debus, Alexander

    2012-01-01

    This thesis investigates the use of high-power lasers for synchrotron radiation sources with high brilliance, from the EUV to the hard X-ray spectral range. Hereby lasers accelerate electrons by laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA), act as optical undulators, or both. Experimental evidence shows for the first time that LWFA electron bunches are shorter than the driving laser and have a length scale comparable to the plasma wavelength. Furthermore, a first proof of principle experiment demonstrates that LWFA electrons can be exploited to generate undulator radiation. Building upon these experimental findings, as well as extensive numerical simulations of Thomson scattering, the theoretical foundations of a novel interaction geometry for laser-matter interaction are developed. This new method is very general and when tailored towards relativistically moving targets not being limited by the focusability (Rayleigh length) of the laser, while it does not require a waveguide. In a theoretical investigation of Thomson scattering, the optical analogue of undulator radiation, the limits of Thomson sources in scaling towards higher peak brilliances are highlighted. This leads to a novel method for generating brilliant, highly tunable X-ray sources, which is highly energy efficient by circumventing the laser Rayleigh limit through a novel traveling-wave Thomson scattering (TWTS) geometry. This new method suggests increases in X-ray photon yields of 2-3 orders of magnitudes using existing lasers and a way towards efficient, optical undulators to drive a free-electron laser. The results presented here extend far beyond the scope of this work. The possibility to use lasers as particle accelerators, as well as optical undulators, leads to very compact and energy efficient synchrotron sources. The resulting monoenergetic radiation of high brilliance in a range from extreme ultraviolet (EUV) to hard X-ray radiation is of fundamental importance for basic research, medical

  20. Optimization of laser parameters to obtain high-energy, high-quality electron beams through laser-plasma acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Samant, Sushil Arun; Sarkar, Deepangkar; Krishnagopal, Srinivas; Upadhyay, Ajay K.; Jha, Pallavi

    2010-01-01

    The propagation of an intense (a 0 =3), short-pulse (L∼λ p ) laser through a homogeneous plasma has been investigated. Using two-dimensional simulations for a 0 =3, the pulse-length and spot-size at three different plasma densities were optimized in order to get a better quality beam in laser wakefield accelerator. The study reveals that with increasing pulse-length the acceleration increases, but after a certain pulse-length (L>0.23λ p ) the emittance blows-up unacceptably. For spot-sizes less than that given by k p0 r s =2√(a 0 ), trapping is poor or nonexistent, and the optimal spot-size is larger. The deviation of the optimal spot-size from this formula increases as the density decreases. The efficacy of these two-dimensional simulations has been validated by running three-dimensional simulations at the highest density. It has been shown that good quality GeV-class beams can be obtained at plasma densities of ∼10 18 cm -3 . The quality of the beam can be substantially improved by selecting only the high-energy peak; in this fashion an energy-spread of better than 1% and a current in tens of kA can be achieved, which are important for applications such as free-electron lasers.

  1. En Route: next-generation laser-plasma-based electron accelerators; En Route: Elektronenbeschleuniger der naechsten Generation auf Laser-Plasma-Basis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hidding, Bernhard

    2008-05-15

    Accelerating electrons to relativistic energies is of fundamental interest, especially in particle physics. Today's accelerator technology, however, is limited by the maximum electric fields which can be created. This thesis presents results on various mechanisms aiming at exploiting the fields in focussed laser pulses and plasma waves for electron acceleration, which can be orders of magnitude higher than with conventional accelerators. With relativistic, underdense laser-plasma-interaction, quasimonoenergetic electron bunches with energies up to {approx}50 MeV and normalized emittances of the order of 5mmmrad have been generated. This was achieved by focussing the {approx}80 fs, 1 J pulses of the JETI-laser at the FSU Jena to intensities of several 10{sup 19}W=cm{sup 2} into gas jets. The experimental observations could be explained via 'bubble acceleration', which is based on self-injection and acceleration of electrons in a highly nonlinear breaking plasma wave. For the rst time, this bubble acceleration was achieved explicitly in the self-modulated laser wakefield regime (SMLWFA). This quasimonoenergetic SMLWFA-regime stands out by relaxing dramatically the requirements on the driving laser pulse necessary to trigger bubble acceleration. This is due to self-modulation of the laser pulse in high-density gas jets, leading to ultrashort laser pulse fragments capable of initiating bubble acceleration. Electron bunches with durations accelerator technology. In addition, more than one laser pulse fragment can be powerful enough to drive a bubble. Distinct double peaks have been observed in the electron spectra, indicating that two quasimonoenergetic electron bunches separated by only few tens of fs have formed. This is backed up by PIC-Simulations (Particle-in-Cell). These results underline the feasibility of the construction of small table

  2. Transverse wakefield of waveguide damped structures and beam dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, X.

    1995-08-01

    In the design of new high energy particle colliders with higher luminosity one is naturally led to consider multi-bunch operation. However, the passage of a leading bunch through an accelerator cavity Generates a wakefield that may have a deleterious effect on the motion of the subsequent bunches. Therefore, the suppression of the wakefield is an essential requirement for beam stability. One solution to this problem, which has been studied extensively is to drain the wakefield energy out of the cavity by means of waveguides coupled with the cavity and fed into matched terminations. Waveguide dimensions are chosen to yield a cutoff frequency well above the frequency of the accelerating mode so that the latter is undamped. This paper presents a thorough investigation of the wakefield for this configuration. The effectiveness of waveguide damping has typically been assessed by evaluating the resultant Q ext of higher order cavity modes to determine their exponential damping rate. We have developed an efficient method to calculate Q ext of the damped modes from popular computer simulation codes such as MAFIA. This method has been successively applied to the B-factory RF cavity We have also found another type of wakefield, associated with waveguide cut-off, which decays as t -3/2 rather than in the well-known exponentially damped manner. Accordingly, we called it the persistent Wakefield. A similar phenomenon with essentially the same physical origin but occurring in the decay of unstable quantum states, has received extensive study. Then we have developed various methods of calculating this persistent wakefield, including mode matching and computer simulation. Based on a circuit model we estimate the limit that waveguide damping can reach to reduce the wakefield

  3. Novel aspects of direct laser acceleration of relativistic electrons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arefiev, Alexey

    2015-11-01

    Production of energetic electrons is a keystone aspect of ultraintense laser-plasma interactions that underpins a variety of topics and applications, including fast ignition inertial confinement fusion and compact particle and radiation sources. There is a wide range of electron acceleration regimes that depend on the duration of the laser pulse and the plasma density. This talk focuses on the regime in which the plasma is significantly underdense and the laser pulse duration is longer than the electron response time, so that, in contrast to the wakefield acceleration regime, the pulse creates a quasi-static channel in the electron density. Such a regime is of particular interest, since it can naturally arise in experiments with solid density targets where the pre-pulse of an ultraintense laser produces an extended sub-critical pre-plasma. This talk examines the impact of several key factors on electron acceleration by the laser pulse and the resulting electron energy gain. A detailed consideration is given to the role played by: (1) the static longitudinal electric field, (2) the static transverse electric field, (3) the electron injection into the laser pulse, (4) the electromagnetic dispersion, and (5) the static longitudinal magnetic field. It is shown that all of these factors lead, under conditions outlined in the talk, to a considerable electron energy gain that greatly exceeds the ponderomotive limit. The static fields do not directly transfer substantial energy to electrons. Instead, they alter the longitudinal dephasing between the electrons and the laser pulse, which then allows the electrons to gain extra energy from the pulse. The talk will also outline a time-resolution criterion that must be satisfied in order to correctly reproduce these effects in particle-in-cell simulations. Supported by AFOSR Contract No. FA9550-14-1-0045, National Nuclear Security Administration Contract No. DE-FC52-08NA28512, and US Department of Energy Contract No. DE-FG02

  4. Ultra-High Gradient Channeling Acceleration in Nanostructures: Design/Progress of Proof-of-Concept (POC) Experiments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shin, Young Min [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States). Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator & Detector Development; Green, A. [Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States). Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator & Detector Development; Lumpkin, A. H. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Thurman-Keup, R. M. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Shiltsev, V. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Zhang, X. [Shanhai Inst. of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Shanghai (China); Farinella, D. M. [Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States); Taborek, P. [Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States); Tajima, T. [Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States); Wheeler, J. A. [Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Center for Ultrafast Optical Science and FOCUS Center; Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, Palaiseau (France). Lab. d' Optique Appliquee; Mourou, G. [Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Center for Ultrafast Optical Science and FOCUS Center; Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, Palaiseau (France). Lab. d' Optique Appliquee

    2016-09-16

    A short bunch of relativistic particles or a short-pulse laser perturbs the density state of conduction electrons in a solid crystal and excites wakefields along atomic lattices in a crystal. Under a coupling condition the wakes, if excited, can accelerate channeling particles with TeV/m acceleration gradients in principle since the density of charge carriers (conduction electrons) in solids n0 = ~ 1020 – 1023 cm-3 is significantly higher than what can be obtained in gaseous plasma. Nanostructures have some advantages over crystals for channeling applications of high power beams. The dechanneling rate can be reduced and the beam acceptance increased by the large size of the channels. For beam-driven acceleration, a bunch length with a sufficient charge density would need to be in the range of the plasma wavelength to properly excite plasma wakefields, and channeled particle acceleration with the wakefields must occur before the ions in the lattices move beyond the restoring threshold. In the case of the excitation by short laser pulses, the dephasing length is appreciably increased with the larger channel, which enables channeled particles to gain sufficient amounts of energy. This paper describes simulation analyses on beam- and laser (X-ray)-driven accelerations in effective nanotube models obtained from Vsim and EPOCH codes. Experimental setups to detect wakefields are also outlined with accelerator facilities at Fermilab and NIU. In the FAST facility, the electron beamline was successfully commissioned at 50 MeV and it is being upgraded toward higher energies for electron accelerator R&D. The 50 MeV injector beamline of the facility is used for X-ray crystal-channeling radiation with a diamond target. It has been proposed to utilize the same diamond crystal for a channeling acceleration POC test. Another POC experiment is also designed for the NIU accelerator lab with time-resolved electron diffraction. Recently, a

  5. Production of high-quality electron bunches by dephasing and beam loading in channeled and unchanneled laser plasma accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geddes, C.G.R.; Toth, Cs.; Tilborg, J. van; Esarey, E.; Schroeder, C.B.; Bruhwiler, D.; Nieter, C.; Cary, J.; Leemans, W.P.

    2005-01-01

    High-quality electron beams, with a few 10 9 electrons within a few percent of the same energy above 80 MeV, were produced in a laser wakefield accelerator by matching the acceleration length to the length over which electrons were accelerated and outran (dephased from) the wake. A plasma channel guided the drive laser over long distances, resulting in production of the high-energy, high-quality beams. Unchanneled experiments varying the length of the target plasma indicated that the high-quality bunches are produced near the dephasing length and demonstrated that channel guiding was more stable and efficient than relativistic self-guiding. Consistent with these data, particle-in-cell simulations indicate production of high-quality electron beams when trapping of an initial bunch of electrons suppresses further injection by loading the wake. The injected electron bunch is then compressed in energy by dephasing, when the front of the bunch begins to decelerate while the tail is still accelerated

  6. Long-term evolution of broken wakefields in finite radius plasmas

    CERN Document Server

    Lotov, Konstantin; Petrenko, Alexey

    2014-01-01

    A novel effect of fast heating and charging a finite-radius plasma is discovered in the context of plasma wakefield acceleration. As the plasma wave breaks, the most of its energy is transferred to plasma electrons which create strong charge-separation electric field and azimuthal magnetic field around the plasma. The slowly varying field structure is preserved for hundreds of wakefield periods and contains (together with hot electrons) up to 80% of the initial wakefield energy.

  7. Obtaining the Wakefield Due to Cell-to-Cell Misalignments in a Linear Accelerator Structure

    OpenAIRE

    Bane, Karl L. F.; Li, Zenghai

    2001-01-01

    A linear accelerator structure, such as will be used in the linacs of the JLC/NLC collider, is composed of on the order of 100 cells. The cells are constructed as individual cups that are brazed together to form a structure. Fabrication error will result in slight cell-to-cell misalignments along the finished structure. In this report we derive an approximation to the transverse wakefield of a structure with cell-to-cell misalignments in terms of the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of the erro...

  8. Final Report: Experimental Investigation of Nonlinear Plasma Wake-Fields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosenzweig, J.

    1997-01-01

    We discuss the exploration of the newly proposed blowout regime of the plasma wakefield accelerator and advanced photoinjector technology for linear collider applications. The plasma wakefield experiment at ANL produced several ground-breaking results in the physics of the blowout regime. The photoinjector R and D effort produced breakthroughs in theoretical, computational, and experimental methods in high brightness beam physics. Results have been published

  9. MeV electron acceleration at 1kHz with <10 mJ laser pulses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salehi, Fatholah; Goers, Andy; Hine, George; Feder, Linus; Kuk, Donghoon; Kim, Ki-Yong; Milchberg, Howard

    2016-10-01

    We demonstrate laser driven acceleration of electrons at 1 kHz repetition rate with pC charge above 1MeV per shot using required for relativistic self-focusing low enough for mJ scale laser pulses to self- focus and drive strong wakefields. Experiments and particle-in-cell simulations show that optimal drive pulse duration and chirp for maximum electron bunch charge and energy depends on the target gas species. High repetition rate, high charge, and short duration electron bunches driven by very modest pulse energies constitutes an ideal portable electron source for applications such as ultrafast electron diffraction experiments and high rep. rate γ-ray production. This work is supported by the US Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

  10. Summary report : working group 5 on 'electron beam-driven plasma and structure based acceleration concepts'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Conde, M. E.; Katsouleas, T.

    2000-01-01

    The talks presented and the work performed on electron beam-driven accelerators in plasmas and structures are summarized. Highlights of the working group include new experimental results from the E-157 Plasma Wakefield Experiment, the E-150 Plasma Lens Experiment and the Argonne Dielectric Structure Wakefield experiments. The presentations inspired discussion and analysis of three working topics: electron hose instability, ion channel lasers and the plasma afterburner

  11. Study of laser plasma interactions in the relativistic regime

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Umstadter, D.

    1997-01-01

    We discuss the first experimental demonstration of electron acceleration by a laser wakefield over instances greater than a Rayleigh range (or the distance a laser normally propagates in vacuum). A self-modulated laser wakefield plasma wave is shown to have a field gradient that exceeds that of an RF linac by four orders of magnitude (E => 200 GV/m) and accelerates electrons with over 1-nC of charge per bunch in a beam with space-charge-limited emittance (1 mm-mrad). Above a laser power threshold, a plasma channel, created by the intense ultrashort laser pulse (I approx. 4 x1018 W/CM2, gamma = 1 micron, r = 400 fs), was found to increase the laser propagation distance, decrease the electron beam divergence, and increase the electron energy. The plasma wave, directly measured with coherent Thomson scattering is shown to damp-due to beam loading-in a duration of 1.5 ps or approx. 100 plasma periods. These results may have important implications for the proposed fast ignitor concept

  12. Spectroscopic measurements of plasma emission light for plasma-based acceleration experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Filippi, F.; Mostacci, A.; Palumbo, L.; Anania, M.P.; Biagioni, A.; Chiadroni, E.; Ferrario, M.; Cianchi, A.; Zigler, A.

    2016-01-01

    Advanced particle accelerators are based on the excitation of large amplitude plasma waves driven by either electron or laser beams. Future experiments scheduled at the SPARC-LAB test facility aim to demonstrate the acceleration of high brightness electron beams through the so-called resonant Plasma Wakefield Acceleration scheme in which a train of electron bunches (drivers) resonantly excites wakefields into a preformed hydrogen plasma; the last bunch (witness) injected at the proper accelerating phase gains energy from the wake. The quality of the accelerated beam depends strongly on plasma density and its distribution along the acceleration length. The measurements of plasma density of the order of 10 16 –10 17  cm −3 can be performed with spectroscopic measurements of the plasma-emitted light. The measured density distribution for hydrogen filled capillary discharge with both Balmer alpha and Balmer beta lines and shot-to-shot variation are here reported.

  13. Spectroscopic measurements of plasma emission light for plasma-based acceleration experiments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filippi, F.; Anania, M. P.; Biagioni, A.; Chiadroni, E.; Cianchi, A.; Ferrario, M.; Mostacci, A.; Palumbo, L.; Zigler, A.

    2016-09-01

    Advanced particle accelerators are based on the excitation of large amplitude plasma waves driven by either electron or laser beams. Future experiments scheduled at the SPARC_LAB test facility aim to demonstrate the acceleration of high brightness electron beams through the so-called resonant Plasma Wakefield Acceleration scheme in which a train of electron bunches (drivers) resonantly excites wakefields into a preformed hydrogen plasma; the last bunch (witness) injected at the proper accelerating phase gains energy from the wake. The quality of the accelerated beam depends strongly on plasma density and its distribution along the acceleration length. The measurements of plasma density of the order of 1016-1017 cm-3 can be performed with spectroscopic measurements of the plasma-emitted light. The measured density distribution for hydrogen filled capillary discharge with both Balmer alpha and Balmer beta lines and shot-to-shot variation are here reported.

  14. Plasma wave amplitude measurement created by guided laser wakefield

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wojda, Franck

    2010-01-01

    The interaction of an intense laser pulse of short duration with a plasma produces a plasma wave with large amplitude in its wake, which is associated with a longitudinal electric field. It can be used to accelerate relativistic electrons injected into the wave to energies in the GeV range over distances of the order of a few centimeters, short compared to acceleration lengths in conventional accelerators. The control of the electron beam characteristics during the acceleration process is fundamental for achieving a usable laser-plasma acceleration stage. The main result of this thesis is the creation and characterization of a plasma wave in a weakly nonlinear regime over a length of several centimeters. Capillary tubes are used to guide the laser beam over these distances, while maintaining a large enough intensity (∼ 10 17 W/cm 2 ). The guided laser beam ionizes the gas in the tube and creates the plasma wave. A diagnostic based on the modification of the laser pulse spectrum was used to determine the amplitude of the plasma wave along the tube. The amplitude of the plasma wave was studied as a function of gas filling pressure, length of the capillary and laser energy. Experimental results are compared; they are in excellent agreement with analytical results and modeling. They show that the electric field associated with the plasma wave is between 1 and 10 GV/m over a length of up to 8 cm. This work has demonstrated the ability to create a controlled plasma wave in a weakly nonlinear regime. (author)

  15. Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Compact Dielectric Wakefield Accelerators

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-03-01

    macroparticles. Additionally the laser is chosen to have a transverse rms spot size of σc = 0.8 mm and rms duration of σt = 1 ps. A solenoidal lens is...photocathode laser . . . . . . . . . . 24 3.3 Experimental realization of a linearly-ramped bunch with a multifrequency linac... laser . Our approach toward the development of a compact beam-driven accelerator consists of four main components depicted in Fig. 1. The production of

  16. Laser guiding at>1018 W/cm2 in plasma channels formed by the ignitor heater method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geddes, C.G.R.; Toth, C.; vanTilborg, J.; Leemans, W.P.

    2004-01-01

    Experiments explore guiding of intense laser pulses, optimization using channel formation beams and gas jet targets, and the interplay of channel guiding and relativistic self guiding. Impact on laser wakefield particle acceleration is being assessed

  17. Wakefield excitation in plasma resonator by a sequence of relativistic electron bunches

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiselev, V.A.; Linnik, A.F.; Mirny, V.I.; Onishchenko, I.N.; Uskov, V.V.

    2008-01-01

    Wakefield excitation in a plasma resonator by a sequence of relativistic electron bunches with the purpose to increase excited field amplitude in comparison to waveguide case is experimentally investigated. A sequence of short electron bunches is produced by the linear resonant accelerator. Plasma resonator is formed at the beam-plasma discharge in rectangular metal waveguide filled with gas and closed by metal foil at entrance and movable short-circuited plunger at exit. Measurements of wakefield amplitude are performed showing considerably higher wakefield amplitude for resonator case

  18. Investigation of the Electron Acceleration by a High-Power Laser and a Density-Tapered Mixed-Gas Cell

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jinju; Phung, Vanessa L. J.; Kim, Minseok; Hur, Min-Sup; Suk, Hyyong

    2017-10-01

    Plasma-based accelerators can generate about 1000 times stronger acceleration field compared with RF-based conventional accelerators, which can be done by high power laser and plasma. There are many issues in this research and one of them is development of a good plasma source for higher electron beam energy. For this purpose, we are investigating a special type of plasma source, which is a density-tapered gas cell with a mixed-gas for easy injection. By this type of special gas cell, we expect higher electron beam energies with easy injection in the wakefield. In this poster, some experimental results for electron beam generation with the density-tapered mixed-gas cell are presented. In addition to the experimental results, CFD (Computational-Fluid-Dynamics) and PIC (Particle-In-Cell) simulation results are also presented for comparison studies.

  19. Advanced Accelerator Development Strategy Report: DOE Advanced Accelerator Concepts Research Roadmap Workshop

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None, None

    2016-02-03

    Over a full two day period, February 2–3, 2016, the Office of High Energy Physics convened a workshop in Gaithersburg, MD to seek community input on development of an Advanced Accelerator Concepts (AAC) research roadmap. The workshop was in response to a recommendation by the HEPAP Accelerator R&D Subpanel [1] [2] to “convene the university and laboratory proponents of advanced acceleration concepts to develop R&D roadmaps with a series of milestones and common down selection criteria towards the goal for constructing a multi-TeV e+e– collider” (the charge to the workshop can be found in Appendix A). During the workshop, proponents of laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (LWFA), particle-beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA), and dielectric wakefield acceleration (DWFA), along with a limited number of invited university and laboratory experts, presented and critically discussed individual concept roadmaps. The roadmap workshop was preceded by several preparatory workshops. The first day of the workshop featured presentation of three initial individual roadmaps with ample time for discussion. The individual roadmaps covered a time period extending until roughly 2040, with the end date assumed to be roughly appropriate for initial operation of a multi-TeV e+e– collider. The second day of the workshop comprised talks on synergies between the roadmaps and with global efforts, potential early applications, diagnostics needs, simulation needs, and beam issues and challenges related to a collider. During the last half of the day the roadmaps were revisited but with emphasis on the next five to ten years (as specifically requested in the charge) and on common challenges. The workshop concluded with critical and unanimous endorsement of the individual roadmaps and an extended discussion on the characteristics of the common challenges. (For the agenda and list of participants see Appendix B.)

  20. Polarization of plastic targets by laser ablation

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Giuffreda, E.; Delle Side, D.; Krása, Josef; Nassisi, V.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 11, May (2016), s. 1-6, č. článku C05004. ISSN 1748-0221 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : lasers * ion sources * wake-field acceleration Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics Impact factor: 1.220, year: 2016

  1. Laser-driven electron beam and radiation sources for basic, medical and industrial sciences

    Science.gov (United States)

    NAKAJIMA, Kazuhisa

    2015-01-01

    To date active research on laser-driven plasma-based accelerators have achieved great progress on production of high-energy, high-quality electron and photon beams in a compact scale. Such laser plasma accelerators have been envisaged bringing a wide range of applications in basic, medical and industrial sciences. Here inheriting the groundbreaker’s review article on “Laser Acceleration and its future” [Toshiki Tajima, (2010)],1) we would like to review recent progress of producing such electron beams due to relativistic laser-plasma interactions followed by laser wakefield acceleration and lead to the scaling formulas that are useful to design laser plasma accelerators with controllability of beam energy and charge. Lastly specific examples of such laser-driven electron/photon beam sources are illustrated. PMID:26062737

  2. Control of Laser Plasma Based Accelerators up to 1 GeV

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nakamura, Kei [Univ. of Tokyo (Japan); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

    2007-12-01

    This dissertation documents the development of a broadband electron spectrometer (ESM) for GeV class Laser Wakefield Accelerators (LWFA), the production of high quality GeV electron beams (e-beams) for the first time in a LWFA by using a capillary discharge guide (CDG), and a statistical analysis of CDG-LWFAs. An ESM specialized for CDG-LWFAs with an unprecedented wide momentum acceptance, from 0.01 to 1.1 GeV in a single shot, has been developed. Simultaneous measurement of e-beam spectra and output laser properties as well as a large angular acceptance (> ± 10 mrad) were realized by employing a slitless scheme. A scintillating screen (LANEX Fast back, LANEX-FB)--camera system allowed faster than 1 Hz operation and evaluation of the spatial properties of e-beams. The design provided sufficient resolution for the whole range of the ESM (below 5% for beams with 2 mrad divergence). The calibration between light yield from LANEX-FB and total charge, and a study on the electron energy dependence (0.071 to 1.23 GeV) of LANEX-FB were performed at the Advanced light source (ALS), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Using this calibration data, the developed ESM provided a charge measurement as well. The production of high quality electron beams up to 1 GeV from a centimeter-scale accelerator was demonstrated. The experiment used a 310 μm diameter gas-filled capillary discharge waveguide that channeled relativistically-intense laser pulses (42 TW, 4.5 x 1018 W/cm2) over 3.3 centimeters of sufficiently low density (≃ 4.3 x 1018/cm3) plasma. Also demonstrated was stable self-injection and acceleration at a beam energy of ≃ 0.5 GeV by using a 225 μm diameter capillary. Relativistically-intense laser pulses (12 TW, 1.3 x 1018W/cm2) were guided over 3.3 centimeters of low density (≃ 3.5 x 1018/cm3) plasma in this experiment. A statistical analysis of the CDG

  3. Laser-driven accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1982-01-01

    Several devices for using laser fields have been proposed and they can be classified in three broad categories - 'far-field' accelerators (such as the principle of inverse free electron lasers), 'media' accelerators (which, for example, use the inverse Cherenkov effect or laser-controlled plasma waves), and 'near-field' accelerators (using a loaded guiding structure such as cavities or gratings). These different approaches come from the fact that a particle cannot be accelerated by the absorption of single photons (because of momentum conservation) and thus some other element has to intervene. (orig./HSI).

  4. Optimization of a train of bunches for plasma wakefield acceleration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Martorelli, Roberto

    2016-05-10

    Particle accelerators are a fundamental instrument for the understanding of fundamental mechanism in nature. The need of always higher energies for the particle beams requires a huge increase of the sizes of the accelerators using the actual technology. Moreover the highest energies are achieved nowadays by circular colliders, not perfectly suitable for acceleration of electrons and positrons due to the radiation losses. In order to overcome this problem a new branch of physics studying alternative technique for particle acceleration has been developed. Among the various alternatives a promising one is the plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA), in which a driver bunch interacts with a cold background plasma, exciting a plasma wave. The electric field of the plasma wave is then used for the acceleration of a second bunch. Such a mechanism allows to reach fields strength far beyond currently available, limited by the dielectric strength of the material. Among the different driver configurations, a promising one is the use of a modulated beam, namely a train of bunches, that provides a coherent interference among the electric fields generated by the single bunches. Such mechanism is subjected to a renewed interest in view of the forthcoming AWAKE experiment at CERN in which the long proton beam produced at the SPS facility is used as a driver. This possibility is achieved thanks to the onset of the self-modulation instability that modulates the long beam in a train of approximately 100 bunches. In order to accelerate the witness bunch to high energies is necessary on the other hand an efficient exchange of energy from the driver to the accelerated bunch, as well as a long duration of the driver so that can propagates for kilometers. This thesis deals with this two last aspects. The aim of this work is to provide an optimization for the modulated driver in order to improve specific features of the PWFA. This work shows the possibility to achieve an improved efficiency

  5. Progress on laser plasma accelerator development using transverselyand longitudinally shaped plasmas

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Leemans, Wim P.; Esarey, E.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Toth, Cs.; Schroeder, C.B.; Nakamura, K.; Gonsalves, A.J.; Panasenko, D.; Cormier-Michel, E.; Plateau, G.R.; Lin, C.; Bruhwiler, D.L.; Cary, J.R.

    2009-03-31

    A summary of progress at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is given on: (1) experiments on down-ramp injection; (2) experiments on acceleration in capillary discharge plasma channels; and (3) simulations of a staged laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA). Control of trapping in a LWFA using plasma density down-ramps produced electron bunches with absolute longitudinal and transverse momentum spreads more than ten times lower than in previous experiments (0.17 and 0.02 MeV Ic FWHM, respectively) and with central momenta of 0.76 +- 0.02 MeV Ic, stable over a week of operation. Experiments were also carried out using a 40 TW laser interacting with a hydrogen-filled capillary discharge waveguide. For a 15 mm long, 200 mu m diameter capillary, quasi-monoenergetic bunches up to 300 MeV were observed. By detuning discharge delay from optimum guiding performance, self-trapping was found to be stabilized. For a 33 mm long, 300 mu m capillary, a parameter regime with high energy bunches, up to 1 Ge V, was found. In this regime, peak electron energy was correlated with the amount of trapped charge. Simulations show that bunches produced on a down-ramn and iniected into a channel-guided LWFA can produce stable beams with 0.2 MeV Ic-class momentum spread at high energies.

  6. Electron self-injection and acceleration in the bubble regime of laser-plasma interaction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kostyukov, I.; Nerush, E.

    2010-01-01

    Complete text of publication follows. The intense laser-plasma and beam-plasma interactions are highly nonlinear-phenomena, which besides being of fundamental interest, attract a great attention due to a number of important applications. One of the key applications is particle acceleration based on excitation of the strong plasma wakefield by laser pulse. In the linear regime of interaction when the laser intensity is low the plasma wake is the linear plasma wave. Moreover, the ponderomotive force of the laser pulse pushes out the plasma electrons from high intensity region leaving behind the laser pulse the plasma cavity - bubble, which is almost free from the plasma electrons. This is the bubble the laser-plasma interaction. Although the bubble propagates with velocity, which is close to speed of light, the huge charge of unshielded ions inside the plasma cavity can trap the cold plasma electrons. Moreover, the electrons are trapped in the accelerated phase of the bubble plasma field thereby leading to efficient electron acceleration. The electron self-injection is an important advantage of the plasma-based acceleration, which allows to exclude the beam loading system requiring accurate synchronization and additional space. The recent experiments have demonstrated high efficiency of the electron self-injection. The beam quality is often of crucial importance in many applications ranging from inertial confinement fusion to the x-ray free electron lasers. Despite a great interest there is still a little theory for relativistic electron dynamics in the plasma wake in multidimensional geometry including electron self-injection. The dynamics of the self-injected electrons can be roughly divided into three stage: (i) electron scattering by the laser pulse, (ii) electron trapping by the bubble, (iii) electron acceleration in the bubble. We developed two analytical models for electron dynamics in the bubble field and verify them by direct measurements of model parameters

  7. Laser power sources and laser technology for accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lowenthal, D.

    1986-01-01

    The requirements on laser power sources for advanced accelerator concepts are formidable. These requirements are driven by the need to deliver 5 TeV particles at luminosities of 10/sup 33/ - 10/sup 34/ cm/sup -2/ sec/sup -1/. Given that optical power can be transferred efficiently to the particles these accelerator parameters translate into single pulse laser output energies of several kilojoules and rep rates of 1-10 kHz. The average laser output power is then 10-20 MW. Larger average powers will be needed if efficient transfer proves not to be possible. A laser plant of this magnitude underscores the importance of high wall plug efficiency and reasonable cost in $/Watt. The interface between the laser output pulse format and the accelerator structure is another area that drives the laser requirements. Laser accelerators break up into two general architectures depending on the strength of the laser coupling. For strong coupling mechanisms, the architecture requires many ''small'' lasers powering the accelerator in a staged arrangement. For the weak coupling mechanisms, the architecture must feature a single large laser system whose power must be transported along the entire accelerator length. Both of these arrangements have demanding optical constraints in terms of phase matching sequential stages, beam combining arrays of laser outputs and optimizing coupling of laser power in a single accelerating stage

  8. Experimental Characterization of Electron-Beam-Driven Wakefield Modes in a Dielectric-Woodpile Cartesian Symmetric Structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoang, P. D.; Andonian, G.; Gadjev, I.; Naranjo, B.; Sakai, Y.; Sudar, N.; Williams, O.; Fedurin, M.; Kusche, K.; Swinson, C.; Zhang, P.; Rosenzweig, J. B.

    2018-04-01

    Photonic structures operating in the terahertz (THz) spectral region enable the essential characteristics of confinement, modal control, and electric field shielding for very high gradient accelerators based on wakefields in dielectrics. We report here an experimental investigation of THz wakefield modes in a three-dimensional photonic woodpile structure. Selective control in exciting or suppressing of wakefield modes with a nonzero transverse wave vector is demonstrated by using drive beams of varying transverse ellipticity. Additionally, we show that the wakefield spectrum is insensitive to the offset position of strongly elliptical beams. These results are consistent with analytic theory and three-dimensional simulations and illustrate a key advantage of wakefield systems with Cartesian symmetry: the suppression of transverse wakes by elliptical beams.

  9. Status of Wakefield Monitor Experiments at the CLIC Test Facility

    CERN Document Server

    Lillestøl, Reidar; Aftab, Namra; Corsini, Roberto; Döbert, Steffen; Farabolini, Wilfrid; Grudiev, Alexej; Javeed, Sumera; Pfingstner, Juergen; Wuensch, Walter

    2016-01-01

    For the very low emittance beams in CLIC, it is vital to mitigate emittance growth which leads to reduced luminosity in the detectors. One factor that leads to emittance growth is transverse wakefields in the accelerating structures. In order to combat this the structures must be aligned with a precision of a few um. For achieving this tolerance, accelerating structures are equipped with wakefield monitors that measure higher-order dipole modes excited by the beam when offset from the structure axis. We report on such measurements, performed using prototype CLIC accelerating structures which are part of the module installed in the CLIC Test Facility 3 (CTF3) at CERN. Measurements with and without the drive beam that feeds rf power to the structures are compared. Improvements to the experimental setup are discussed, and finally remaining measurements that should be performed before the completion of the program are summarized.

  10. RF power generation and coupling measurements for the dielectric wakefield step-up transformer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Conde, M. E.

    1998-01-01

    The dielectric wakefield transformer (DWT) is one route to practical high energy wakefield-based accelerators. Progress has been made in a number of areas relevant to the demonstration of this device. In this article we describe recent bench measurements and beam experiments using 7.8 and 15.6 GHz structures and discuss some remaining technical challenges in the development of the DWT

  11. Laser technologies for laser accelerators. Annual report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-01-01

    The primary result of the work reported is the determination of laser system architectures that satsify the requirements of high luminosity, high energy (about 1 TeV), electron accelerators. It has been found that high laser efficiency is a very hard driver for these accelerators as the total average laser output optical power is likely to fall above 10 MW. The luminosity requires rep rates in the kHz range, and individual pulse lengths in the 1-10 psec range are required to satisfy acceleration gradient goals. CO 2 and KrF lasers were chosen for study because of their potential to simultaneously satisfy the given requirements. Accelerator luminosity is reviewed, and requirements on laser system average power and rep rate are determined as a function of electron beam bunch parameters. Laser technologies are reviewed, including CO 2 , excimers, solid state, and free electron lasers. The proposed accelerator mechanisms are summarized briefly. Work on optical transport geometries for near and far field accelerators are presented. Possible exploitation of the CO 2 and DrF laser technology to generate the required pulse lengths, rep rates, and projected efficiencies is illustrated and needed development work is suggested. Initial efforts at developing a 50 GeV benchmark conceptual design and a 100 MeV demonstration experiment conceptual design are presented

  12. Evolution of pulse shapes during compressor scans in a CPA system and control of electron acceleration in plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toth, Csaba; Groot, Joeri de; Tilborg, Jeroen van; Geddes, Cameron G.R.; Faure, Jerome; Catravas, Palma; Schroeder, Carl; Shadwick, B.A.; Esarey, Eric; Leemans, Wim

    2002-01-01

    The skewness of the envelope function of 20 - 100 femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser pulses has been controlled by appropriate choice of the higher order special phase coefficients, and used for optimization of a plasma wakefield electron accelerator

  13. Measurement of angularly dependent spectra of betatron gamma-rays from a laser plasma accelerator with quadrant-sectored range filters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jeon, Jong Ho, E-mail: jhjeon07@ibs.re.kr; Nakajima, Kazuhisa, E-mail: naka115@dia-net.ne.jp; Rhee, Yong Joo; Pathak, Vishwa Bandhu; Cho, Myung Hoon; Shin, Jung Hun; Yoo, Byung Ju; Jo, Sung Ha; Shin, Kang Woo [Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 61005 (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Hyung Taek; Sung, Jae Hee; Lee, Seong Ku; Choi, Il Woo [Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 61005 (Korea, Republic of); Advanced Photonics Research Institute, GIST, Gwangju 61005 (Korea, Republic of); Hojbota, Calin; Bae, Lee Jin; Jung, Jaehyung; Cho, Min Sang; Cho, Byoung Ick; Nam, Chang Hee [Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 61005 (Korea, Republic of); Department of Physics and Photon Science, GIST, Gwangju 61005 (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-07-15

    Measurement of angularly dependent spectra of betatron gamma-rays radiated by GeV electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) are presented. The angle-resolved spectrum of betatron radiation was deconvolved from the position dependent data measured for a single laser shot with a broadband gamma-ray spectrometer comprising four-quadrant sectored range filters and an unfolding algorithm, based on the Monte Carlo code GEANT4. The unfolded gamma-ray spectra in the photon energy range of 0.1–10 MeV revealed an approximately isotropic angular dependence of the peak photon energy and photon energy-integrated fluence. As expected by the analysis of betatron radiation from LWFAs, the results indicate that unpolarized gamma-rays are emitted by electrons undergoing betatron motion in isotropically distributed orbit planes.

  14. Charged particle and photon acceleration by wakefield plasma waves in non-uniform plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bulanov, S.V.; Kirsanov, V.I.; Sakharov, A.S.; Pegoraro, F.

    1993-01-01

    We discuss the acceleration of charged particles and the upshift of the frequency of short wave packets of laser radiation. The acceleration and the upshift are caused by wake plasma waves excited by a strong laser pulse in a non-uniform plasma. We show that unlimited acceleration of charged particles is possible for specific spatial dependencies of the plasma density. In this unlimited acceleration regime, particles have a fixed phase relationship with respect to the plasma wave, while their energy increases with time. When the wave breaking limit is approached and surpassed, the efficiency of the acceleration of the charged particles and of the frequency upshift of the photons can be increased significantly. (author) 3 refs

  15. Dielectric Wakefield Researches

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiselev, V.A.; Linnik, A.F.; Onishchenko, N.I.; Uskov, V.V.; Marshall, T.C.

    2006-01-01

    Excitation of wakefield in cylindrical dielectric waveguide/resonator by a sequence of relativistic electron bunches was investigated using an electron linac 'Almaz-2' (4.5 MeV, 6·10 3 bunches of duration 60 ps and charge 0.32 nC each). Energy spectrum of electrons, radial topography and longitudinal distribution of wakefield, and total energy of excited wakefield were measured by means of magnetic analyzer, high frequency probe, and a sensitive calorimeter

  16. Coherent transition radiation from a laser wakefield accelerator as an electron bunch diagnostic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tilborg, J. van; Geddes, C.G.R.; Toth, C.; Esarey, E.; Schroeder, C.B.; Martin, M.C.; Hao, Z.; Leemans, W.P.

    2004-01-01

    The observation and modeling of coherent transition radiation from femtosecond laser accelerated electron bunches is discussed. The coherent transition radiation, scaling quadratically with bunch charge, is generated as the electrons transit the plasma-vacuum boundary. Due to the limited transverse radius of the plasma boundary, diffraction effects will strongly modify the angular distribution and the total energy radiated is reduced compared to an infinite transverse boundary. The multi-nC electron bunches, concentrated in a length of a few plasma periods (several tens of microns), experience partial charge neutralization while propagating inside the plasma towards the boundary. This reduces the space-charge blowout of the beam, allowing for coherent radiation at relatively high frequencies (several THz). The charge distribution of the electron bunch at the plasma-vacuum boundary can be derived from Fourier analysis of the coherent part of the transition radiation spectrum. A Michelson interferometer was used to measure the coherent spectrum, and electron bunches with duration on the order of 50 fs (rms) were observed

  17. Accelerator structure work for NLC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, R.H.; Adolphsen, C.; Bane, K.L.F.; Deruyter, H.; Farkas, Z.D.; Hoag, H.A.; Holtkamp, N.; Lavine, T.; Loew, G.A.; Nelson, E.M.; Palmer, R.B.; Paterson, J.M.; Ruth, R.D.; Thompson, K.A.; Vlieks, A.; Wang, J.W.; Wilson, P.B.; Gluckstern, R.; Ko, K.; Kroll, N.; California Univ., San Diego, La Jolla, CA

    1992-07-01

    The NLC design achieves high luminosity with multiple bunches in each RF pulse. Acceleration of a train of bunches without emittance growth requires control of long range dipole wakefields. SLAC is pursuing a structure design which suppresses the effect of wakefields by varying the physical dimensions of successive cells of the disk-loaded traveling wave structure in a manner which spreads the frequencies of the higher mode while retaining the synchronism between the electrons and the accelerating mode. The wakefields of structures incorporating higher mode detuning have been measured at the Accelerator Test Facility at Argonne. Mechanical design and brazing techniques which avoid getting brazing alloy into the interior of the accelerator are being studied. A test facility for high-power testing of these structures is complete and high power testing has begun

  18. The generation of high fields for particle acceleration to very high energies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-01-01

    A Workshop organised by the CERN Accelerator School, the European Committee for Future Accelerators and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare was held at the Frascati laboratory of INFN during the last week of September 1984. Its purpose was to bring together an inter-disciplinary group of physicists to review ideas for the acceleration of particles to energies beyond those attainable in machines whose construction is underway, or is currently contemplated. These proceedings contain some of the material presented and discussed at the Workshop, comprising papers on topics such as: the free-electron-laser, the lasertron, wakefield accelerators, the laser excitation of droplet arrays, a switched-power linac, plasma beat-wave accelerators and the choice of basic parameters for linear colliders intended for the TeV energy region. (orig.)

  19. Laser wakefield excitation and measurement by femtosecond longitudinal interferometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Siders, C.W.; Le Blanc, S.P.; Fisher, D.; Tajima, T.; Downer, M.C.

    1996-04-01

    Plasma density oscillations (Langmuir waves) in the wake of an intense (I peak ∼ 3 x 10 17 W/cm 2 ) laser pulse (100 fs) are measured with ultrafast time resolution using a longitudinal interferometric technique. Phase shifts consistent with large amplitude (δn e /n e ∼ 1) density waves at the electron plasma frequency were observed in a fully tunnel-ionized He plasma, corresponding to longitudinal electric fields of ∼ 10 GV/m. Strong radial ponderomotive forces enhance the density oscillations. As this technique utilizes a necessary component of any laser-based plasma accelerator, it promises to be a powerful tool for on-line monitoring and control of future plasma-based particle accelerators

  20. Properties of Trapped Electron Bunches in a Plasma Wakefield Accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kirby, Neil; /SLAC

    2009-10-30

    Plasma-based accelerators use the propagation of a drive bunch through plasma to create large electric fields. Recent plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) experiments, carried out at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), successfully doubled the energy for some of the 42 GeV drive bunch electrons in less than a meter; this feat would have required 3 km in the SLAC linac. This dissertation covers one phenomenon associated with the PWFA, electron trapping. Recently it was shown that PWFAs, operated in the nonlinear bubble regime, can trap electrons that are released by ionization inside the plasma wake and accelerate them to high energies. These trapped electrons occupy and can degrade the accelerating portion of the plasma wake, so it is important to understand their origins and how to remove them. Here, the onset of electron trapping is connected to the drive bunch properties. Additionally, the trapped electron bunches are observed with normalized transverse emittance divided by peak current, {epsilon}{sub N,x}/I{sub t}, below the level of 0.2 {micro}m/kA. A theoretical model of the trapped electron emittance, developed here, indicates that the emittance scales inversely with the square root of the plasma density in the non-linear 'bubble' regime of the PWFA. This model and simulations indicate that the observed values of {epsilon}{sub N,x}/I{sub t} result from multi-GeV trapped electron bunches with emittances of a few {micro}m and multi-kA peak currents. These properties make the trapped electrons a possible particle source for next generation light sources. This dissertation is organized as follows. The first chapter is an overview of the PWFA, which includes a review of the accelerating and focusing fields and a survey of the remaining issues for a plasma-based particle collider. Then, the second chapter examines the physics of electron trapping in the PWFA. The third chapter uses theory and simulations to analyze the properties of the trapped

  1. COAXIAL TWO-CHANNEL DIELECTRIC WAKE FIELD ACCELERATOR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hirshfield, Jay L. [Omega-P, Inc.

    2013-04-30

    Theory, computations, and experimental apparatus are presented that describe and are intended to confirm novel properties of a coaxial two-channel dielectric wake field accelerator. In this configuration, an annular drive beam in the outer coaxial channel excites multimode wakefields which, in the inner channel, can accelerate a test beam to an energy much higher than the energy of the drive beam. This high transformer ratio is the result of judicious choice of the dielectric structure parameters, and of the phase separation between drive bunches and test bunches. A structure with cm-scale wakefields has been build for tests at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Laboratory, and a structure with mm-scale wakefields has been built for tests at the SLAC FACET facility. Both tests await scheduling by the respective facilities.

  2. New Developments in the Simulation of Advanced Accelerator Concepts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paul, K.; Cary, J.R.; Cowan, B.; Bruhwiler, D.L.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Mullowney, P.J.; Messmer, P.; Esarey, E.; Cormier-Michel, E.; Leemans, W.P.; Vay, J.-L.

    2008-01-01

    Improved computational methods are essential to the diverse and rapidly developing field of advanced accelerator concepts. We present an overview of some computational algorithms for laser-plasma concepts and high-brightness photocathode electron sources. In particular, we discuss algorithms for reduced laser-plasma models that can be orders of magnitude faster than their higher-fidelity counterparts, as well as important on-going efforts to include relevant additional physics that has been previously neglected. As an example of the former, we present 2D laser wakefield accelerator simulations in an optimal Lorentz frame, demonstrating and gt;10 GeV energy gain of externally injected electrons over a 2 m interaction length, showing good agreement with predictions from scaled simulations and theory, with a speedup factor of ∼2,000 as compared to standard particle-in-cell.

  3. Emerging terawatt picosecond CO2 laser technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pogorelsky, I.V.

    1997-09-01

    The first terawatt picosecond (TWps) CO 2 laser is under construction at the BNL Accelerator Test Facility (ATF). TWps-CO 2 lasers, having an order of magnitude longer wavelength than the well-known table-top terawatt solid state lasers, offer new opportunities for strong-field physics research. For laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) the advantage of the new class of lasers is due to a gain of two orders of magnitude in the ponderomotive potential. The large average power of CO 2 lasers is important for the generation of hard radiation through Compton back-scattering of the laser off energetic electron beams. The authors discuss applications of TWps-CO 2 lasers for LWFA modules of a tentative electron-positron collider, for γ-γ (or γ-lepton) colliders, for a possible table-top source of high-intensity x-rays and gamma rays, and the generation of polarized positron beams

  4. Advances in the SLAC RDDS: Modeling Manifold Damping and its Effect on the Wakefield for the Next Linear Collider

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, Roger M

    2000-01-01

    The RDDS (Rounded Damped Detuned Structure) accelerator damps the transverse wakefield excited by bunches of electrons traversing thousands of linear accelerator structures. Errors in the fabrication of the cells which constitute each structure can result in a wakefield which is resonantly driven by the bunches, leading to BBU (Beam Break Up) and to a substantial growth in the beam emittance. One means to avoid these deleterious effects is to provide additional damping of the manifold, via plating the walls of the manifold with an electrically lossy material such as canthol or by fabricating the wall with stainless steel rather than copper. Results are presented on the wakefield and emittance growth in structures with a moderately lossy manifold

  5. On the way to stabilized laser-driven GeV electrons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chou, Shao-wei; Weineisen, Tobias; Fuchs, Matthias; Popp, Antonia; Major, Zsuzsanna; Weingartner, Raphael; Ahmad, Izhar; Schmid, Karl; Marx, Benjamin; Krausz, Ferenc; Gruener, Florian; Karsch, Stefan [Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Munich (Germany); Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich (Germany); Osterhoff, Jens [LOASIS Program, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore (United States); Schroeder, Hartmut; Haas, Harald [Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Munich (Germany); Rowlands-Rees, Tom; Hooker, Simon [University of Oxford, Oxford (United Kingdom)

    2010-07-01

    Laser-driven-wakefield electron accelerators have shown electron beams with energies of up to 1 GeV from a centimeter-scale plasma accelerator. In order to achieve higher electron energies, these acceleration distances need to be increased. This can be realized with a discharge capillary. However, a discharge typically introduces instabilities on both pointing and energy of the generated electrons. In order to improve the stability, we demonstrate a preliminary test of a modified discharge which includes a pre-pulse circuit before the firing of the main pulse. We also show gas density shaping by a laser- machined nozzle which should be able to make a more precise injection in the capillary accelerator thus reducing the energy instability.

  6. Laser-driven acceleration with Bessel beam

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Imasaki, Kazuo; Li, Dazhi

    2005-01-01

    A new approach of laser-driven acceleration with Bessel beam is described. Bessel beam, in contrast to the Gaussian beam, shows diffraction-free'' characteristics in its propagation, which implies potential in laser-driven acceleration. But a normal laser, even if the Bessel beam, laser can not accelerate charged particle efficiently because the difference of velocity between the particle and photon makes cyclic acceleration and deceleration phase. We proposed a Bessel beam truncated by a set of annular slits those makes several special regions in its travelling path, where the laser field becomes very weak and the accelerated particles are possible to receive no deceleration as they undergo decelerating phase. Thus, multistage acceleration is realizable with high gradient. In a numerical computation, we have shown the potential of multistage acceleration based on a three-stage model. (author)

  7. Advanced Accelerators: Particle, Photon and Plasma Wave Interactions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Williams, Ronald L. [Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, FL (United States)

    2017-06-29

    The overall objective of this project was to study the acceleration of electrons to very high energies over very short distances based on trapping slowly moving electrons in the fast moving potential wells of large amplitude plasma waves, which have relativistic phase velocities. These relativistic plasma waves, or wakefields, are the basis of table-top accelerators that have been shown to accelerate electrons to the same high energies as kilometer-length linear particle colliders operating using traditional decades-old acceleration techniques. The accelerating electrostatic fields of the relativistic plasma wave accelerators can be as large as GigaVolts/meter, and our goal was to study techniques for remotely measuring these large fields by injecting low energy probe electron beams across the plasma wave and measuring the beam’s deflection. Our method of study was via computer simulations, and these results suggested that the deflection of the probe electron beam was directly proportional to the amplitude of the plasma wave. This is the basis of a proposed diagnostic technique, and numerous studies were performed to determine the effects of changing the electron beam, plasma wave and laser beam parameters. Further simulation studies included copropagating laser beams with the relativistic plasma waves. New interesting results came out of these studies including the prediction that very small scale electron beam bunching occurs, and an anomalous line focusing of the electron beam occurs under certain conditions. These studies were summarized in the dissertation of a graduate student who obtained the Ph.D. in physics. This past research program has motivated ideas for further research to corroborate these results using particle-in-cell simulation tools which will help design a test-of-concept experiment in our laboratory and a scaled up version for testing at a major wakefield accelerator facility.

  8. A cyclotron resonance laser accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sprangle, P.; Tang, C.M.; Vlahos, L.

    1983-01-01

    A laser acceleration mechanism which utilizes a strong static, almost uniform, magnetic field together with an intense laser pulse is analyzed. The interaction and acceleration mechanism relies on a self resonance effect. Since the laser field is assumed to be diffraction limited, the magnetic field must be spatially varied to maintain resonance. The effective accelerating gradient is shown to scale like 1/√E /SUB b/ , where E /SUB b/ is the electron energy. For a numerical illustration the authors consider a 1 x 10 13 W/cm 2 , CO 2 laser and show that electrons can be accelerated to more than 500 MeV in a distance of 15 m (approximately two Rayleigh lengths)

  9. Emerging terawatt picosecond CO{sub 2} laser technology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pogorelsky, I V [Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)

    1998-03-01

    The first terawatt picosecond (TWps) CO{sub 2} laser is under construction at the BNL Accelerator Test Facility (ATF). TWps-CO{sub 2} lasers, having an order of magnitude longer wavelength than the well-known table-top terawatt solid state lasers, offer new opportunities for strong-field physics research. For laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) the advantage of the new class of lasers is due to a gain of two orders of magnitude in the ponderomotive potential. The large average power of CO{sub 2} lasers is important for the generation of hard radiation through Compton back-scattering of the laser off energetic electron beams. We discuss applications of TWps-CO{sub 2} lasers for LWFA modules of a tentative electron-positron collider, for {gamma}-{gamma} (or {gamma}-lepton) colliders, for a possible `table-top` source of high-intensity x-rays and gamma rays, and the generation of polarized positron beams. (author)

  10. Frequency-Domain Tomography for Single-shot, Ultrafast Imaging of Evolving Laser-Plasma Accelerators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Zhengyan; Zgadzaj, Rafal; Wang, Xiaoming; Downer, Michael

    2011-10-01

    Intense laser pulses propagating through plasma create plasma wakefields that often evolve significantly, e.g. by expanding and contracting. However, such dynamics are known in detail only through intensive simulations. Laboratory visualization of evolving plasma wakes in the ``bubble'' regime is important for optimizing and scaling laser-plasma accelerators. Recently snap-shots of quasi-static wakes were recorded using frequency-domain holography (FDH). To visualize the wake's evolution, we have generalized FDH to frequency-domain tomography (FDT), which uses multiple probes propagating at different angles with respect to the pump pulse. Each probe records a phase streak, imprinting a partial record of the evolution of pump-created structures. We then topographically reconstruct the full evolution from all phase streaks. To prove the concept, a prototype experiment visualizing nonlinear index evolution in glass is demonstrated. Four probes propagating at 0, 0.6, 2, 14 degrees to the index ``bubble'' are angularly and temporally multiplexed to a single spectrometer to achieve cost-effective FDT. From these four phase streaks, an FDT algorithm analogous to conventional CT yields a single-shot movie of the pump's self-focusing dynamics.

  11. Wakefield and RF Kicks Due to Coupler Asymmetry in TESLA-Type Accelerating Cavities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bane, K

    2008-01-01

    In a future linear collider, such as the International Linear Collider (ILC), trains of high current, low emittance bunches will be accelerated in a linac before colliding at the interaction point. Asymmetries in the accelerating cavities of the linac will generate fields that will kick the beam transversely and degrade the beam emittance and thus the collider performance. In the main linac of the ILC, which is filled with TESLA-type superconducting cavities, it is the fundamental (FM) and higher mode (HM) couplers that are asymmetric and thus the source of such kicks. The kicks are of two types: one, due to (the asymmetry in) the fundamental RF fields and the other, due to transverse wakefields that are generated by the beam even when it is on axis. In this report we calculate the strength of these kicks and estimate their effect on the ILC beam. The TESLA cavity comprises nine cells, one HM coupler in the upstream end, and one (identical, though rotated) HM coupler and one FM coupler in the downstream end (for their shapes and location see Figs. 1, 2) [1]. The cavity is 1.1 m long, the iris radius 35 mm, and the coupler beam pipe radius 39 mm. Note that the couplers reach closer to the axis than the irises, down to a distance of 30 mm

  12. Microlens Array Laser Transverse Shaping Technique for Photoemission Electron Source

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Halavanau, A. [Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Ha, G. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Pohang Univ. of Science and Technology (POSTECH) (Korea, Republic of); Qiang, G. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Gai, W. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Power, J. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Piot, P. [Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Wisniewski, E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Edstrom, D. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Ruan, J. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Santucci, J. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

    2016-09-06

    A common issue encountered in photoemission electron sources used in electron accelerators is distortion of the laser spot due to non ideal conditions at all stages of the amplification. Such a laser spot at the cathode may produce asymmetric charged beams that will result in degradation of the beam quality due to space charge at early stages of acceleration and fail to optimally utilize the cathode surface. In this note we study the possibility of using microlens arrays to dramatically improve the transverse uniformity of the drive laser pulse on UV photocathodes at both Fermilab Accelerator Science \\& Technology (FAST) facility and Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA). In particular, we discuss the experimental characterization of the homogeneity and periodic patterned formation at the photocathode. Finally, we compare the experimental results with the paraxial analysis, ray tracing and wavefront propagation software.

  13. Laser acceleration... now with added fibre

    CERN Multimedia

    Katarina Anthony

    2012-01-01

    Laser acceleration technology is plagued by two main issues: efficiency and repetition rates. In other words, lasers consume too much power and cannot sustain accelerating particles long enough to produce collisions. ICAN, a new EU-funded project, is examining how fibre lasers may help physicists tackle these issues.   A diode-pumped fibre laser. (Image courtesy of Laser Zentrum Hannover.) The International Coherent Amplification Network (ICAN) is studying the potential of lasers for collision physics. CERN is a beneficiary of the project and will collaborate with 15 other institutes from around the world, including KEK in Japan, Fermilab in the USA, and DESY in Germany. “The network is looking into existing fibre laser technology, which we believe has fantastic potential for accelerators,” says Gerard Mourou, ICAN co-ordinator at the École Polytechnique in France. “The hope is to make laser acceleration competitive with traditional radio-fre...

  14. Technical Design Report for the FACET-II Project at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None, None

    2016-08-26

    Electrons can “surf” on waves of plasma – a hot gas of charged particles – gaining very high energies in very short distances. This approach, called plasma wakefield acceleration, has the potential to dramatically shrink the size and cost of particle accelerators. Research at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has demonstrated that plasmas can provide 1,000 times the acceleration in a given distance compared with current technologies. Developing revolutionary and more efficient acceleration techniques that allow for an affordable high-energy collider has been the focus of FACET, a National User Facility at SLAC. FACET used part of SLAC’s two-mile-long linear accelerator to generate high-density beams of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons. Research into plasma wakefield acceleration was the primary motivation for constructing FACET. In April 2016, FACET operations came to an end to make way for the second phase of SLAC’s x-ray laser, the LCLS-II, which will use part of the tunnel occupied by FACET. FACET-II is a new test facility to provide the unique capability to develop advanced acceleration and coherent radiation techniques with high-energy electron and positron beams. FACET-II represents a major upgrade over current FACET capabilities and the breadth of the potential research program makes it truly unique.

  15. Design of a high charge (10 - 100 nC) and short pulse (2 - 5 ps) rf photocathode gun for wakefield acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gai, W.

    1998-01-01

    In this paper we present a design report on a 1-1/2 cell, L Band RF photocathode gun that is capable of generating and accelerating electron beams with peak currents >10 kA. We have performed simulation for bunch intensities in the range of 10-100 nC with peak axial electrical field at the photocathode of 30-100 MV/m. Unlike conventional short electron pulse generation, this design does not require magnetic pulse compression. Based on numerical simulations using SUPERFISH and PARMELA, this design will produce 20-100 nC beam at 18 MeV with rms bunch length 0.6-1.25 mm and normalized transverse emittance 30-108 mm mrad. Applications of this beam for wakefield acceleration is also discussed

  16. On-Chip Laser-Power Delivery System for Dielectric Laser Accelerators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hughes, Tyler W.; Tan, Si; Zhao, Zhexin; Sapra, Neil V.; Leedle, Kenneth J.; Deng, Huiyang; Miao, Yu; Black, Dylan S.; Solgaard, Olav; Harris, James S.; Vuckovic, Jelena; Byer, Robert L.; Fan, Shanhui; England, R. Joel; Lee, Yun Jo; Qi, Minghao

    2018-05-01

    We propose an on-chip optical-power delivery system for dielectric laser accelerators based on a fractal "tree-network" dielectric waveguide geometry. This system replaces experimentally demanding free-space manipulations of the driving laser beam with chip-integrated techniques based on precise nanofabrication, enabling access to orders-of-magnitude increases in the interaction length and total energy gain for these miniature accelerators. Based on computational modeling, in the relativistic regime, our laser delivery system is estimated to provide 21 keV of energy gain over an acceleration length of 192 μ m with a single laser input, corresponding to a 108-MV/m acceleration gradient. The system may achieve 1 MeV of energy gain over a distance of less than 1 cm by sequentially illuminating 49 identical structures. These findings are verified by detailed numerical simulation and modeling of the subcomponents, and we provide a discussion of the main constraints, challenges, and relevant parameters with regard to on-chip laser coupling for dielectric laser accelerators.

  17. Accelerator-driven X-ray Sources

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nguyen, Dinh Cong [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2015-11-09

    After an introduction which mentions x-ray tubes and storage rings and gives a brief review of special relativity, the subject is treated under the following topics and subtopics: synchrotron radiation (bending magnet radiation, wiggler radiation, undulator radiation, brightness and brilliance definition, synchrotron radiation facilities), x-ray free-electron lasers (linac-driven X-ray FEL, FEL interactions, self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE), SASE self-seeding, fourth-generation light source facilities), and other X-ray sources (energy recovery linacs, Inverse Compton scattering, laser wakefield accelerator driven X-ray sources. In summary, accelerator-based light sources cover the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Synchrotron radiation (bending magnet, wiggler and undulator radiation) has unique properties that can be tailored to the users’ needs: bending magnet and wiggler radiation is broadband, undulator radiation has narrow spectral lines. X-ray FELs are the brightest coherent X-ray sources with high photon flux, femtosecond pulses, full transverse coherence, partial temporal coherence (SASE), and narrow spectral lines with seeding techniques. New developments in electron accelerators and radiation production can potentially lead to more compact sources of coherent X-rays.

  18. Analysis and comparison between electric and magnetic power couplers for accelerators in Free Electron Lasers (FEL)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Serpico, C.; Grudiev, A.; Vescovo, R.

    2016-10-01

    Free-electron lasers represent a new and exciting class of coherent optical sources possessing broad wavelength tunability and excellent optical-beam quality. The FERMI seeded free-electron laser (FEL), located at the Elettra laboratory in Trieste, is driven by a 200 m long, S-band linac: the high energy part of the linac is equipped with 6 m long backward traveling wave (BTW) structures. The structures have small iris radius and a nose cone geometry which allows for high gradient operation. Development of new high-gradient, S-band accelerating structures for the replacement of the existing BTWs is under consideration. This paper investigates two possible solutions for the RF power couplers suitable for a linac driven FEL which require reduced wakefields effects, high operating gradient and very high reliability. The first part of the manuscript focuses on the reduction of residual field asymmetries, while in the second analyzes RF performances, the peak surface fields and the expected breakdown rate. In the conclusion, two solutions are compared and pros and cons are highlighted.

  19. Analysis and comparison between electric and magnetic power couplers for accelerators in Free Electron Lasers (FEL)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Serpico, C., E-mail: claudio.serpico@elettra.eu [Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste, Trieste (Italy); Grudiev, A. [CERN, Geneva (Switzerland); Vescovo, R. [University of Trieste, Trieste (Italy)

    2016-10-11

    Free-electron lasers represent a new and exciting class of coherent optical sources possessing broad wavelength tunability and excellent optical-beam quality. The FERMI seeded free-electron laser (FEL), located at the Elettra laboratory in Trieste, is driven by a 200 m long, S-band linac: the high energy part of the linac is equipped with 6 m long backward traveling wave (BTW) structures. The structures have small iris radius and a nose cone geometry which allows for high gradient operation. Development of new high-gradient, S-band accelerating structures for the replacement of the existing BTWs is under consideration. This paper investigates two possible solutions for the RF power couplers suitable for a linac driven FEL which require reduced wakefields effects, high operating gradient and very high reliability. The first part of the manuscript focuses on the reduction of residual field asymmetries, while in the second analyzes RF performances, the peak surface fields and the expected breakdown rate. In the conclusion, two solutions are compared and pros and cons are highlighted.

  20. Applications of laser-driven particle acceleration

    CERN Document Server

    Parodi, Katia; Schreiber, Jorg

    2018-01-01

    The first book of its kind to highlight the unique capabilities of laser-driven acceleration and its diverse potential, Applications of Laser-Driven Particle Acceleration presents the basic understanding of acceleration concepts and envisioned prospects for selected applications. As the main focus, this new book explores exciting and diverse application possibilities, with emphasis on those uniquely enabled by the laser driver that can also be meaningful and realistic for potential users. A key aim of the book is to inform multiple, interdisciplinary research communities of the new possibilities available and to inspire them to engage with laser-driven acceleration, further motivating and advancing this developing field. Material is presented in a thorough yet accessible manner, making it a valuable reference text for general scientific and engineering researchers who are not necessarily subject matter experts. Applications of Laser-Driven Particle Acceleration is edited by Professors Paul R. Bolton, Katia ...

  1. Energy loss of a high charge bunched electron beam in plasma: Simulations, scaling, and accelerating wakefields

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. B. Rosenzweig

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available The energy loss and gain of a beam in the nonlinear, “blowout” regime of the plasma wakefield accelerator, which features ultrahigh accelerating fields, linear transverse focusing forces, and nonlinear plasma motion, has been asserted, through previous observations in simulations, to scale linearly with beam charge. Additionally, from a recent analysis by Barov et al., it has been concluded that for an infinitesimally short beam, the energy loss is indeed predicted to scale linearly with beam charge for arbitrarily large beam charge. This scaling is predicted to hold despite the onset of a relativistic, nonlinear response by the plasma, when the number of beam particles occupying a cubic plasma skin depth exceeds that of plasma electrons within the same volume. This paper is intended to explore the deviations from linear energy loss using 2D particle-in-cell simulations that arise in the case of experimentally relevant finite length beams. The peak accelerating field in the plasma wave excited behind the finite-length beam is also examined, with the artifact of wave spiking adding to the apparent persistence of linear scaling of the peak field amplitude into the nonlinear regime. At large enough normalized charge, the linear scaling of both decelerating and accelerating fields collapses, with serious consequences for plasma wave excitation efficiency. Using the results of parametric particle-in-cell studies, the implications of these results for observing severe deviations from linear scaling in present and planned experiments are discussed.

  2. Detection of laser-accelerated protons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reinhardt, Sabine

    2012-08-08

    Real-time (Online) detection of laser-accelerated protons is a challenge for any electronic detector system due to the peculiar time structure ({<=} ns) and high intensity ({>=}10{sup 7} p/cm{sup 2}) of the generated ion pulses. Besides considerable saturation effects, problems are expected by an electromagnetic interference pulse (EMP), generated during laser-plasma interaction. In the scope of this work, different detection systems were built-up with regard to specific demands of laser-ion-acceleration at the MPQ ATLAS laser, which allow the quantitative analysis of the generated proton beam. A cell irradiation experiment at the ATLAS laser was accomplished to demonstrate the usability of laser-accelerated protons for radiation therapy. Cells were irradiated with a single shot dose of few Gy for a proton energy of 5 MeV. The following cell analysis required the spatially resolved measurement of the dose distribution. Only radiation-sensitive films were applicable because of the small proton range, although they show significant quenching effects for the used proton energy. This was extensively studied in the 3-200 MeV energy range. A film-based dosimetry protocol for low-energy proton irradiations was developed, making the absolute dose determination in the cell experiment possible. The non-electronic detectors (nuclear track detectors, radiation-sensitive films) are still state of the art in laser-accelerated ion diagnostics, although these detectors only allow a delayed in time (offline) detection. A non-electronic system, based on image plates, was thoroughly characterized and calibrated for ongoing experiments at the ATLAS laser, for the first time. Main objective of this work, though, was the set-up of a real-time detection system, which is urgently required, owing to increasing repetition rate of the laser accelerator (>Hz), to advance the parameter optimisation of the laser-acceleration in an efficient way. Systems based on silicon pixel detectors are

  3. Detection of laser-accelerated protons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reinhardt, Sabine

    2012-01-01

    Real-time (Online) detection of laser-accelerated protons is a challenge for any electronic detector system due to the peculiar time structure (≤ ns) and high intensity (≥10 7 p/cm 2 ) of the generated ion pulses. Besides considerable saturation effects, problems are expected by an electromagnetic interference pulse (EMP), generated during laser-plasma interaction. In the scope of this work, different detection systems were built-up with regard to specific demands of laser-ion-acceleration at the MPQ ATLAS laser, which allow the quantitative analysis of the generated proton beam. A cell irradiation experiment at the ATLAS laser was accomplished to demonstrate the usability of laser-accelerated protons for radiation therapy. Cells were irradiated with a single shot dose of few Gy for a proton energy of 5 MeV. The following cell analysis required the spatially resolved measurement of the dose distribution. Only radiation-sensitive films were applicable because of the small proton range, although they show significant quenching effects for the used proton energy. This was extensively studied in the 3-200 MeV energy range. A film-based dosimetry protocol for low-energy proton irradiations was developed, making the absolute dose determination in the cell experiment possible. The non-electronic detectors (nuclear track detectors, radiation-sensitive films) are still state of the art in laser-accelerated ion diagnostics, although these detectors only allow a delayed in time (offline) detection. A non-electronic system, based on image plates, was thoroughly characterized and calibrated for ongoing experiments at the ATLAS laser, for the first time. Main objective of this work, though, was the set-up of a real-time detection system, which is urgently required, owing to increasing repetition rate of the laser accelerator (>Hz), to advance the parameter optimisation of the laser-acceleration in an efficient way. Systems based on silicon pixel detectors are applicable for

  4. Staging laser plasma accelerators for increased beam energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Panasenko, Dmitriy; Shu, Anthony; Schroeder, Carl; Gonsalves, Anthony; Nakamura, Kei; Matlis, Nicholas; Cormier-Michel, Estelle; Plateau, Guillaume; Lin, Chen; Toth, Csaba; Geddes, Cameron; Esarey, Eric; Leemans, Wim

    2008-01-01

    Staging laser plasma accelerators is an efficient way of mitigating laser pump depletion in laser driven accelerators and necessary for reaching high energies with compact laser systems. The concept of staging includes coupling of additional laser energy and transporting the electron beam from one accelerating module to another. Due to laser damage threshold constraints, in-coupling laser energy with conventional optics requires distances between the accelerating modules of the order of 10m, resulting in decreased average accelerating gradient and complicated e-beam transport. In this paper we use basic scaling laws to show that the total length of future laser plasma accelerators will be determined by staging technology. We also propose using a liquid jet plasma mirror for in-coupling the laser beam and show that it has the potential to reduce distance between stages to the cm-scale.

  5. 12th Advanced Accelerator Concept (AAC 2006) Workshop

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Piot, Philippe

    2006-01-01

    Summary of the 12th Advanced Accelerator Concept (AAC 2006) Workshop help by NIU and ANL on July 10th-15th 2006 in Lake Geneva WI. The proceedings of the workshop have been published as an AIP conference proceedings '12th Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop' volume 877. The Twelfth Workshop on Advanced Accelerator Concepts was held at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, from July 10 to July 15, 2006. The Workshop was sponsored by the High Energy Physics program of the U.S. Department of Energy, and was hosted by the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Group (AWA) of Argonne National Laboratory and by Northern Illinois University. The workshop is a bi-annual meeting among physicist working on novel charged particle acceleration concept. The name 'advanced accelerator' physics covers long term research and development in beam physics and accelerator technologies. Some of the topics in advanced accelerator R and D are laser acceleration of electrons, wake field acceleration, novel high power rf source, new beam diagnostics, free-electron lasers, generating high brightness electron beams etc. The Advanced Accelerator Concept workshop is the only acknowledged and fully sponsored forum that provides a platform for inter- and cross-disciplinary discussion on various aspects of advanced accelerator and beam physics/technology concepts.

  6. Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) facility

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) facility (formerly LOASIS) develops advanced accelerators and radiation sources. High gradient (1-100 GV/m) laser-plasma...

  7. Wakefield effects in the SLC beam delivery system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Napoly, O.

    1996-06-01

    Wakefield effects occurring in the SLC after the LI28 emittance measurement station could be responsible for part of all of the observed discrepancy between the expected vertical spot sizes at the IP and the measured ones. The strongest wakefields are generated by the parts of the beam chamber which are the closest to the beam, like collimators. In this note we review the effect of the following wakefield sources: geometric wakefields from final focus fixed and movable collimators, geometric and resistive wakefields from linac collimators jaws, resistive wakefields from the beam pipe at the sextupole and final transformer locations. We mostly concentrate on the transverse dipole and quadrupole wakefield effects, although the longitudinal wakefields are briefly studied at the end. We limit ourselves to the vertical beam dynamics and to the lowest (mainly linear) order of the wakefield expansion with respect to the beam offset, which excludes the near wall effect on the beam. (author)

  8. Principles of laser-plasma accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malka, V.; Mora, P.

    2009-01-01

    The continuing development of powerful laser systems has permitted to extend the interaction of laser beams with matter far into the relativistic domain in which extremely high electric and magnetic fields are generated. Thanks to these tremendous fields, that only plasma can support and sustain, new and compact approaches for producing energetic particle beams have been recently achieved (for example the bubble regime and the colliding laser pulses scheme). The incredible progress of these laser-plasma accelerators has allowed physicists to produce high quality beams of energetic radiation and particles. These beams have interesting properties such as shortness, brightness and spatial quality, and could lend themselves to applications in many fields, including medicine (radiotherapy, proton therapy, imaging), radiation biology (short-time-scale), chemistry (radiolysis), physics and material science (radiography, electron and photon diffraction), security (material inspection), and of course accelerator science. Stimulated by the advent of compact and powerful lasers, with moderate costs and high repetition rate, this research field has witnessed considerable growth in the past few years, and the promises of laser-plasma accelerators are in tremendous progress. The recent years in particular have seen spectacular progress in the acceleration of electrons and of ions, both in terms of energy and in terms of quality of the beams. (authors)

  9. Inverse Cerenkov laser acceleration experiment at ATF

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, X.J.; Pogorelsky, I.; Fernow, R.; Kusche, K.P.; Liu, Y.; Kimura, W.D.; Kim, G.H.; Romea, R.D.; Steinhauer, L.C.

    1994-01-01

    Inverse Cerenkov laser acceleration was demonstrated using an axicon optical system at the Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility (ATF). The ATF S-band linac and a high power 10.6 μm CO 2 laser were used for the experiment. Experimental arrangement and the laser and the electron beams synchronization are discussed. The electrons were accelerated more than 0.7 MeV for a 34 MW CO 2 laser power. More than 3.7 MeV acceleration was measured with 0.7 GW CO 2 laser power, which is more than 20 times of the previous ICA experiment. The experimental results are compared with computer program TRANSPORT simulations

  10. Comparative study of active plasma lenses in high-quality electron accelerator transport lines

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Tilborg, J.; Barber, S. K.; Benedetti, C.; Schroeder, C. B.; Isono, F.; Tsai, H.-E.; Geddes, C. G. R.; Leemans, W. P.

    2018-05-01

    Electrically discharged active plasma lenses (APLs) are actively pursued in compact high-brightness plasma-based accelerators due to their high-gradient, tunable, and radially symmetric focusing properties. In this manuscript, the APL is experimentally compared with a conventional quadrupole triplet, highlighting the favorable reduction in the energy dependence (chromaticity) in the transport line. Through transport simulations, it is explored how the non-uniform radial discharge current distribution leads to beam-integrated emittance degradation and a charge density reduction at focus. However, positioning an aperture at the APL entrance will significantly reduce emittance degradation without additional loss of charge in the high-quality core of the beam. An analytical model is presented that estimates the emittance degradation from a short beam driving a longitudinally varying wakefield in the APL. Optimizing laser plasma accelerator operation is discussed where emittance degradation from the non-uniform discharge current (favoring small beams inside the APL) and wakefield effects (favoring larger beam sizes) is minimized.

  11. Laser-driven electron accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Palmer, R.B.

    1981-01-01

    The following possibilities are discussed: inverse free electron laser (wiggler accelerator); inverse Cerenkov effect; plasma accelerator; dielectric tube; and grating linac. Of these, the grating acceleraton is considered the most attractive alternative

  12. Inverse Free Electron Laser accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fisher, A.; Gallardo, J.; van Steenbergen, A.; Sandweiss, J.

    1992-09-01

    The study of the INVERSE FREE ELECTRON LASER, as a potential mode of electron acceleration, is being pursued at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Recent studies have focussed on the development of a low energy, high gradient, multi stage linear accelerator. The elementary ingredients for the IFEL interaction are the 50 MeV Linac e - beam and the 10 11 Watt CO 2 laser beam of BNL's Accelerator Test Facility (ATF), Center for Accelerator Physics (CAP) and a wiggler. The latter element is designed as a fast excitation unit making use of alternating stacks of Vanadium Permendur (VaP) ferromagnetic laminations, periodically interspersed with conductive, nonmagnetic laminations, which act as eddy current induced field reflectors. Wiggler parameters and field distribution data will be presented for a prototype wiggler in a constant period and in a ∼ 1.5 %/cm tapered period configuration. The CO 2 laser beam will be transported through the IFEL interaction region by means of a low loss, dielectric coated, rectangular waveguide. Short waveguide test sections have been constructed and have been tested using a low power cw CO 2 laser. Preliminary results of guide attenuation and mode selectivity will be given, together with a discussion of the optical issues for the IFEL accelerator. The IFEL design is supported by the development and use of 1D and 3D simulation programs. The results of simulation computations, including also wiggler errors, for a single module accelerator and for a multi-module accelerator will be presented

  13. Picosecond CO2 laser for relativistic particle acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pogorelsky, I.; Ben-Zvi, I.; Kimura, W.D.; Kurnit, N.A.; Kannari, F.

    1994-01-01

    A table-top 20-GW 50-ps CO 2 laser system is under operation at the Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility. We compare laser performance with model predictions. Extrapolations suggest the possibility of compact terawatt CO 2 laser systems suitable as laser accelerator drivers and for other strong-field applications. Latest progress on an Inverse Cherenkov Laser Accelerator experiment is reported

  14. CO2 laser technology for advanced particle accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pogorelsky, I.V.

    1996-06-01

    Short-pulse, high-power CO 2 lasers open new prospects for development of ultra-high gradient laser-driven electron accelerators. The advantages of λ=10 μm CO 2 laser radiation over the more widely exploited solid state lasers with λ∼1 μm are based on a λ 2 -proportional ponderomotive potential, λ-proportional phase slippage, and λ-proportional scaling of the laser accelerator structures. We show how a picosecond terawatt CO 2 laser that is under construction at the Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility may benefit the ATF's experimental program of testing far-field, near-field, and plasma accelerator schemes

  15. Acceleration of charged particles by lasers in vacuum

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cicchitelli, L.; Hora, H.; Scheid, W.

    1989-01-01

    For laser acceleration of electrons (and other charged particles) by lasers to the TeV energy range in vacuum, the scheme of trapping electrons in spatially moving and accelerated intensity gradients or minima of laser fields, the single electron motion in standing wave fields is evaluated in details numerically. Acceleration of the minima results in the acceleration of the electrons as expected from global results of the nonlinear forces. If half-wave length laser pulses propagating in vacuum are used the relativistic exact solutions are derived and evaluated. A disadvantage is the lateral motion requiring a large laser focus. For TeV electron energy, MJ KrF-laser pulses are necessary and the acceleration length is about 10 cm. copyright 1989 American Institute of Physics

  16. Future accelerator technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sessler, A.M.

    1986-05-01

    A general discussion is presented of the acceleration of particles. Upon this foundation is built a categorization scheme into which all accelerators can be placed. Special attention is devoted to accelerators which employ a wake-field mechanism and a restricting theorem is examined. It is shown how the theorem may be circumvented. Comments are made on various acceleration schemes

  17. Particle-in-cell/accelerator code for space-charge dominated beam simulation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2012-05-08

    Warp is a multidimensional discrete-particle beam simulation program designed to be applicable where the beam space-charge is non-negligible or dominant. It is being developed in a collaboration among LLNL, LBNL and the University of Maryland. It was originally designed and optimized for heave ion fusion accelerator physics studies, but has received use in a broader range of applications, including for example laser wakefield accelerators, e-cloud studies in high enery accelerators, particle traps and other areas. At present it incorporates 3-D, axisymmetric (r,z) planar (x-z) and transverse slice (x,y) descriptions, with both electrostatic and electro-magnetic fields, and a beam envelope model. The code is guilt atop the Python interpreter language.

  18. Laser-propelled ram accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sasoh, A. [Tohoku Univ., Sendai (Japan). Inst. of Fluid Science

    2000-11-01

    The concept of 'laser-propelled ram accelerator (L-RAMAC)' is proposed. Theoretically it is capable of achieving a higher launch speed than that by a chemical ram accelerator because a higher specific energy can be input to the propellant gas. The laser beam is supplied through the muzzle, focused as an annulus behind the base of the projectile. The performance of L-RAMAC is analized based on generalized Rankine-Hugoniot relations, suggesting that a superorbital muzzle speed is achievable out of this device. (orig.)

  19. Studies of Positron Generation from Ultraintense Laser-Matter Interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Gerald Jackson

    Laser-produced pair jets possess unique characteristics that offer great potential for their use in laboratory-astrophysics experiments to study energetic phenomenon such as relativistic shock accelerations. High-flux, high-energy positron sources may also be used to study relativistic pair plasmas and useful as novel diagnostic tools for high energy density conditions. Copious amounts of positrons are produced with MeV energies from directly irradiating targets with ultraintense lasers where relativistic electrons, accelerated by the laser field, drive positron-electron pair production. Alternatively, laser wakefield accelerated electrons can produce pairs by the same mechanisms inside a secondary converter target. This dissertation describes a series of novel experiments that investigate the characteristics and scaling of pair production from ultraintense lasers, which are designed to establish a robust platform for laboratory-based relativistic pair plasmas. Results include a simple power-law scaling to estimate the effective positron yield for elemental targets for any Maxwellian electron source, typical of direct laser-target interactions. To facilitate these measurements, a solenoid electromagnetic coil was constructed to focus emitted particles, increasing the effective collection angle of the detector and enabling the investigation of pair production from thin targets and low-Z materials. Laser wakefield electron sources were also explored as a compact, high repetition rate platform for the production of high energy pairs with potential applications to the creation of charge-neutral relativistic pair plasmas. Plasma accelerators can produce low-divergence electron beams with energies approaching a GeV at Hz frequencies. It was found that, even for high-energy positrons, energy loss and scattering mechanisms in the target create a fundamental limit to the divergence and energy spectrum of the emitted positrons. The potential future application of laser

  20. Lasers and new methods of particle acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parsa, Z.

    1998-02-01

    There has been a great progress in development of high power laser technology. Harnessing their potential for particle accelerators is a challenge and of great interest for development of future high energy colliders. The author discusses some of the advances and new methods of acceleration including plasma-based accelerators. The exponential increase in sophistication and power of all aspects of accelerator development and operation that has been demonstrated has been remarkable. This success has been driven by the inherent interest to gain new and deeper understanding of the universe around us. With the limitations of the conventional technology it may not be possible to meet the requirements of the future accelerators with demands for higher and higher energies and luminosities. It is believed that using the existing technology one can build a linear collider with about 1 TeV center of mass energy. However, it would be very difficult (or impossible) to build linear colliders with energies much above one or two TeV without a new method of acceleration. Laser driven high gradient accelerators are becoming more realistic and is expected to provide an alternative, (more compact, and more economical), to conventional accelerators in the future. The author discusses some of the new methods of particle acceleration, including laser and particle beam driven plasma based accelerators, near and far field accelerators. He also discusses the enhanced IFEL (Inverse Free Electron Laser) and NAIBEA (Nonlinear Amplification of Inverse-Beamstrahlung Electron Acceleration) schemes, laser driven photo-injector and the high energy physics requirements

  1. Dynamics of electron bunches at the laser–plasma interaction in the bubble regime

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Maslov, V.I., E-mail: vmaslov@kipt.kharkov.ua; Svystun, O.M., E-mail: svistun_elena@mail.ru; Onishchenko, I.N.; Tkachenko, V.I.

    2016-09-01

    The multi-bunches self-injection, observed in laser–plasma accelerators in the bubble regime, affects the energy gain of electrons accelerated by laser wakefield. However, understanding of dynamics of the electron bunches formed at laser–plasma interaction may be challenging. We present here the results of fully relativistic electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of laser wakefield acceleration driven by a short laser pulse in an underdense plasma. The trapping and acceleration of three witness electron bunches by the bubble-like structures were observed. It has been shown that with time the first two witness bunches turn into drivers and contribute to acceleration of the last witness bunch.

  2. Automated detection and analysis of particle beams in laser-plasma accelerator simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ushizima, Daniela Mayumi; Geddes, C.G.; Cormier-Michel, E.; Bethel, E. Wes; Jacobsen, J.; Prabhat; Ruebel, O.; Weber, G.; Hamann, B.

    2010-01-01

    Numerical simulations of laser-plasma wakefield (particle) accelerators model the acceleration of electrons trapped in plasma oscillations (wakes) left behind when an intense laser pulse propagates through the plasma. The goal of these simulations is to better understand the process involved in plasma wake generation and how electrons are trapped and accelerated by the wake. Understanding of such accelerators, and their development, offer high accelerating gradients, potentially reducing size and cost of new accelerators. One operating regime of interest is where a trapped subset of electrons loads the wake and forms an isolated group of accelerated particles with low spread in momentum and position, desirable characteristics for many applications. The electrons trapped in the wake may be accelerated to high energies, the plasma gradient in the wake reaching up to a gigaelectronvolt per centimeter. High-energy electron accelerators power intense X-ray radiation to terahertz sources, and are used in many applications including medical radiotherapy and imaging. To extract information from the simulation about the quality of the beam, a typical approach is to examine plots of the entire dataset, visually determining the adequate parameters necessary to select a subset of particles, which is then further analyzed. This procedure requires laborious examination of massive data sets over many time steps using several plots, a routine that is unfeasible for large data collections. Demand for automated analysis is growing along with the volume and size of simulations. Current 2D LWFA simulation datasets are typically between 1GB and 100GB in size, but simulations in 3D are of the order of TBs. The increase in the number of datasets and dataset sizes leads to a need for automatic routines to recognize particle patterns as particle bunches (beam of electrons) for subsequent analysis. Because of the growth in dataset size, the application of machine learning techniques for

  3. Strategies for mitigating the ionization-induced beam head erosion problem in an electron-beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. An

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Strategies for mitigating ionization-induced beam head erosion in an electron-beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA are explored when the plasma and the wake are both formed by the transverse electric field of the beam itself. Beam head erosion can occur in a preformed plasma because of a lack of focusing force from the wake at the rising edge (head of the beam due to the finite inertia of the electrons. When the plasma is produced by field ionization from the space charge field of the beam, the head erosion is significantly exacerbated due to the gradual recession (in the beam frame of the 100% ionization contour. Beam particles in front of the ionization front cannot be focused (guided causing them to expand as in vacuum. When they expand, the location of the ionization front recedes such that even more beam particles are completely unguided. Eventually this process terminates the wake formation prematurely, i.e., well before the beam is depleted of its energy. Ionization-induced head erosion can be mitigated by controlling the beam parameters (emittance, charge, and energy and/or the plasma conditions. In this paper we explore how the latter can be optimized so as to extend the beam propagation distance and thereby increase the energy gain. In particular we show that, by using a combination of the alkali atoms of the lowest practical ionization potential (Cs for plasma formation and a precursor laser pulse to generate a narrow plasma filament in front of the beam, the head erosion rate can be dramatically reduced. Simulation results show that in the upcoming “two-bunch PWFA experiments” on the FACET facility at SLAC national accelerator laboratory the energy gain of the trailing beam can be up to 10 times larger for the given parameters when employing these techniques. Comparison of the effect of beam head erosion in preformed and ionization produced plasmas is also presented.

  4. Calculation and optimization of laser acceleration in vacuum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Z. Huang

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Extraordinarily high fields generated by focused lasers are envisioned to accelerate particles to high energies. In this paper, we develop a new method to calculate laser acceleration in vacuum based on the energy exchange arising from the interference of the laser field with the radiation field of the particle. We apply this method to a simple accelerating structure, a perfectly conducting screen with a round hole, and show how to optimize the energy gain with respect to the hole radius, laser angle, and spot size, as well as the transverse profile of the laser. Limitations and energy scaling of this acceleration method are also discussed.

  5. Free-electron laser driven by the LBNL laser-plasma accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schroeder, C.B.; Fawley, W.M.; Gruner, F.; Bakeman, M.; Nakamura, K.; Robinson, K.E.; Toth, Cs.; Esarey, E.; Leemans, W.P.

    2008-01-01

    A design of a compact free-electron laser (FEL), generating ultra-fast, high-peak flux, XUV pulses is presented. The FEL is driven by ahigh-current, 0.5 GeV electron beam from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) laser-plasma accelerator, whose active acceleration length is only a few centimeters. The proposed ultra-fast source (∼10 fs) would be intrinsically temporally synchronized to the drive laser pulse, enabling pump-probe studies in ultra-fast science. Owing to the high current (>10 kA) of the laser-plasma-accelerated electron beams, saturated output fluxes are potentially greater than 10 13 photons/pulse. Devices based both on self-amplified spontaneous emission and high-harmonic generated input seeds, to reduce undulator length and fluctuations, are considered.

  6. Multi-stage wake-field accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gai, Wei.

    1989-01-01

    In this paper we propose a multi-stage wake field acceleration scheme to overcome the low transformer ratio problem and still provide high accelerating gradients. The idea is very simple. We use a train of several electron bunches from a linear accelerator (main linac) with well defined separations between the bunches (tens of ns) to drive wake field devices. Here we have made the assumption that the wake field devices are available, whether plasma, iris-loaded metallic or dielectric wake field structures. 10 refs

  7. Relativistically Induced Transparency Acceleration (RITA) - laser-plasma accelerated quasi-monoenergetic GeV ion-beams with existing lasers?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahai, Aakash A.

    2013-10-01

    Laser-plasma ion accelerators have the potential to produce beams with unprecedented characteristics of ultra-short bunch lengths (100s of fs) and high bunch-charge (1010 particles) over acceleration length of about 100 microns. However, creating and controlling mono-energetic bunches while accelerating to high-energies has been a challenge. If high-energy mono-energetic beams can be demonstrated with minimal post-processing, laser (ω0)-plasma (ωpe) ion accelerators may be used in a wide-range of applications such as cancer hadron-therapy, medical isotope production, neutron generation, radiography and high-energy density science. Here we demonstrate using analysis and simulations that using relativistic intensity laser-pulses and heavy-ion (Mi ×me) targets doped with a proton (or light-ion) species (mp ×me) of trace density (at least an order of magnitude below the cold critical density) we can scale up the energy of quasi-mono-energetically accelerated proton (or light-ion) beams while controlling their energy, charge and energy spectrum. This is achieved by controlling the laser propagation into an overdense (ω0 RITA). Desired proton or light-ion energies can be achieved by controlling the velocity of the snowplow, which is shown to scale inversely with the rise-time of the laser (higher energies for shorter pulses) and directly with the scale-length of the plasma density gradient. Similar acceleration can be produced by controlling the increase of the laser frequency (Chirp Induced Transparency Acceleration, ChITA). Work supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF- PHY-0936278. Also, NSF-PHY-0936266 and NSF-PHY-0903039; the US Department of Energy under DEFC02-07ER41500, DE- FG02-92ER40727 and DE-FG52-09NA29552.

  8. Relativistic ion acceleration by ultraintense laser interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakajima, K.; Koga, J.K.; Nakagawa, K.

    2001-01-01

    There has been a great interest in relativistic particle generation by ultraintense laser interactions with matter. We propose the use of relativistically self-focused laser pulses for the acceleration of ions. Two dimensional PIC simulations are performed, which show the formation of a large positive electrostatic field near the front of a relativistically self-focused laser pulse. Several factors contribute to the acceleration including self-focusing distance, pulse depletion, and plasma density. Ultraintense laser-plasma interactions are capable of generating enormous electrostatic fields of ∼3 TV/m for acceleration of protons with relativistic energies exceeding 1 GeV

  9. Optimization of the LCLS X-Rray FEL Output Performance in the Presence of Strong Undulator Wakefields

    CERN Document Server

    Reiche, Sven; Emma, Paul; Fawley, William M; Huang, Zhirong; Nuhn, Heinz-Dieter; Stupakov, Gennady

    2005-01-01

    The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Free-Electron Laser will operate in the wavelength range of 1.5 to 15 Angstroms. Energy loss due to wakefields within the long undulator can degrade the FEL process by detuning the resonant FEL frequency. The wakefields arise from the vacuum chamber wall resistivity, its surface roughness, and abrupt changes in its aperture. For LCLS parameters, the resistive component is the most critical and depends upon the chamber material (e.g. Cu) and its radius. To study the expected performance in the presence of these wakefields, we make a series of "start-to-end" simulations with tracking codes PARMELA and ELEGANT and time-dependent FEL simulation codes Genesis 1.3 and Ginger. We discuss the impact of the wakefield on output energy, spectral bandwidth, and temporal envelope of the output FEL pulse, as well as the benefits of a partial compensation obtained with a slight z dependent taper in the undulator field. We compare these results to those obtained by decreasing the bunch ...

  10. Vacuum laser acceleration using a radially polarized CO sub 2 laser beam

    CERN Document Server

    Liu, Y; He, P

    1999-01-01

    Utilizing the high-power, radially polarized CO sub 2 laser and high-quality electron beam at the Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility, a vacuum laser acceleration scheme is proposed. In this scheme, optics configuration is simple, a small focused beam spot size can be easily maintained, and optical damage becomes less important. At least 0.5 GeV/m acceleration gradient is achievable by 1 TW laser power.

  11. LIGHT: Towards a laser-based accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Busold, Simon; Deppert, Oliver; Roth, Markus [Technical University of Darmstadt, Institute for Nuclear Physics, Schlossgartenstrasse 9, 64289 Darmstadt (Germany); Brabetz, Christian [Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Institute for Applied Physics, Max von Laue Strasse 1, 60438 Frankfurt (Germany); Burris-Mog, Trevor; Joost, Martin; Cowan, Tom [Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstrasse 400, 01328 Dresden (Germany); Blazevic, Abel; Bagnoud, Vincent [GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Zielbauer, Bernhard [GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Helmholtz Institute Jena, Helmholtzweg 4, 07743 Jena (Germany); Kester, Oliver [GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Institute for Applied Physics, Max von Laue Strasse 1, 60438 Frankfurt (Germany)

    2012-07-01

    Proton acceleration by ultrashort, high intensity laser pulses has been a fast growing field of research during the last decade. The most intensely investigated acceleration mechanism is the TNSA mechanism (Target Normal Sheath Acceleration), providing protons in the multi-MeV-range. For many possible applications, however, the full energy spread and large beam divergence are major draw-backs. Therefore, a pulsed high-field solenoid was used for collimation and energy-selection and is now integrated in a full test stand for a laser-based accelerator at GSI Helmholtz Center, Darmstadt, namely the LIGHT project (Laser Ion Generation, Handling and Transport), which is a collaboration between TU Darmstadt, GSI, HZDR, JWGU Frankfurt and HI Jena. An overview of the new infrastructure, the goals of the LIGHT project, and first experimental results are presented.

  12. Direct longitudinal laser acceleration of electrons in free space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergio Carbajo

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Compact laser-driven accelerators are pursued heavily worldwide because they make novel methods and tools invented at national laboratories widely accessible in science, health, security, and technology [V. Malka et al., Principles and applications of compact laser-plasma accelerators, Nat. Phys. 4, 447 (2008]. Current leading laser-based accelerator technologies [S. P. D. Mangles et al., Monoenergetic beams of relativistic electrons from intense laser-plasma interactions, Nature (London 431, 535 (2004; T. Toncian et al., Ultrafast laser-driven microlens to focus and energy-select mega-electron volt protons, Science 312, 410 (2006; S. Tokita et al. Single-shot ultrafast electron diffraction with a laser-accelerated sub-MeV electron pulse, Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 111911 (2009] rely on a medium to assist the light to particle energy transfer. The medium imposes material limitations or may introduce inhomogeneous fields [J. R. Dwyer et al., Femtosecond electron diffraction: “Making the molecular movie,”, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 364, 741 (2006]. The advent of few cycle ultraintense radially polarized lasers [S. Carbajo et al., Efficient generation of ultraintense few-cycle radially polarized laser pulses, Opt. Lett. 39, 2487 (2014] has ushered in a novel accelerator concept [L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Direct acceleration of an electron in infinite vacuum by a pulsed radially polarized laser beam, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010; F. Pierre-Louis et al. Direct-field electron acceleration with ultrafast radially polarized laser beams: Scaling laws and optimization, J. Phys. B 43, 025401 (2010; Y. I. Salamin, Electron acceleration from rest in vacuum by an axicon Gaussian laser beam, Phys. Rev. A 73, 043402 (2006; C. Varin and M. Piché, Relativistic attosecond electron pulses from a free-space laser-acceleration scheme, Phys. Rev. E 74, 045602 (2006; A. Sell and F. X. Kärtner, Attosecond electron bunches accelerated and

  13. Awakening the potential of plasma acceleration

    CERN Multimedia

    Katarina Anthony

    2014-01-01

    Civil engineering has begun for the new AWAKE experiment, which looks to push the boundaries of particle acceleration. This proof-of-principle experiment will harness the power of wakefields generated by proton beams in plasma cells, producing accelerator gradients hundreds of times higher than those used in current RF cavities.   Civil engineering works are currently ongoing at the AWAKE facility. As one of CERN's accelerator R&D experiments, the AWAKE project is rather unique. Like all of CERN's experiments, AWAKE is a collaborative endeavour with institutes and organisations participating around the world. "But unlike fixed-target experiments, where the users take over once CERN has delivered the facility, in AWAKE, the synchronised proton, electron and laser beams provided by CERN are an integral part of the experiment," explains Edda Gschwendtner, CERN AWAKE project leader. "So, of course, CERN's involvement in the project goes well...

  14. Production, Characterization, and Acceleration of Optical Microbunches

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sears, Christopher M.S. [Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

    2008-06-20

    Optical microbunches with a spacing of 800 nm have been produced for laser acceleration research. The microbunches are produced using a inverse Free-Electron-Laser (IFEL) followed by a dispersive chicane. The microbunched electron beam is characterized by coherent optical transition radiation (COTR) with good agreement to the analytic theory for bunch formation. In a second experiment the bunches are accelerated in a second stage to achieve for the first time direct net acceleration of electrons traveling in a vacuum with visible light. This dissertation presents the theory of microbunch formation and characterization of the microbunches. It also presents the design of the experimental hardware from magnetostatic and particle tracking simulations, to fabrication and measurement of the undulator and chicane magnets. Finally, the dissertation discusses three experiments aimed at demonstrating the IFEL interaction, microbunch production, and the net acceleration of the microbunched beam. At the close of the dissertation, a separate but related research effort on the tight focusing of electrons for coupling into optical scale, Photonic Bandgap, structures is presented. This includes the design and fabrication of a strong focusing permanent magnet quadrupole triplet and an outline of an initial experiment using the triplet to observe wakefields generated by an electron beam passing through an optical scale accelerator.

  15. Calculating the radiation characteristics of accelerated electrons in laser-plasma interactions

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Li, X.F.; Yu, Q.; Gu, Yanjun; Qu, J.F.; Ma, Y.Y.; Kong, Q.; Kawata, S.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 23, č. 3 (2016), s. 1-5, č. článku 033113. ISSN 1070-664X R&D Projects: GA MŠk EF15_008/0000162; GA MŠk LQ1606 Grant - others:ELI Beamlines(XE) CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_008/0000162 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : wakefield accelerator * x-rays * beams * driven Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics OBOR OECD: Fluids and plasma physics (including surface physics) Impact factor: 2.115, year: 2016

  16. CO2 laser technology for advanced particle accelerators. Revision

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pogorelsky, I.V.

    1996-06-01

    Short-pulse, high-power CO 2 lasers open new prospects for development of ultra-high gradient laser-driven electron accelerators. The advantages of λ=10 μm CO 2 laser radiation over the more widely exploited solid state lasers with λ∼1 μm are based on a λ 2 -proportional ponderomotive potential, λ-proportional phase slippage distance, and λ-proportional scaling of the laser accelerator structures. We show how a picosecond terawatt CO 2 laser that is under construction at the Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility may benefit the ATF's experimental program of testing far-field, near-field, and plasma accelerator schemes

  17. An accurate Rb density measurement method for a plasma wakefield accelerator experiment using a novel Rb reservoir

    CERN Document Server

    Öz, E.; Muggli, P.

    2016-01-01

    A method to accurately measure the density of Rb vapor is described. We plan on using this method for the Advanced Wakefield (AWAKE)~\\cite{bib:awake} project at CERN , which will be the world's first proton driven plasma wakefield experiment. The method is similar to the hook~\\cite{bib:Hook} method and has been described in great detail in the work by W. Tendell Hill et. al.~\\cite{bib:densitymeter}. In this method a cosine fit is applied to the interferogram to obtain a relative accuracy on the order of $1\\%$ for the vapor density-length product. A single-mode, fiber-based, Mach-Zenhder interferometer will be built and used near the ends of the 10 meter-long AWAKE plasma source to be able to make accurate relative density measurement between these two locations. This can then be used to infer the vapor density gradient along the AWAKE plasma source and also change it to the value desired for the plasma wakefield experiment. Here we describe the plan in detail and show preliminary results obtained using a prot...

  18. Laser-driven ion acceleration with hollow laser beams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brabetz, C.; Kester, O.; Busold, S.; Bagnoud, V.; Cowan, T.; Deppert, O.; Jahn, D.; Roth, M.; Schumacher, D.

    2015-01-01

    The laser-driven acceleration of protons from thin foils irradiated by hollow high-intensity laser beams in the regime of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) is reported for the first time. The use of hollow beams aims at reducing the initial emission solid angle of the TNSA source, due to a flattening of the electron sheath at the target rear side. The experiments were conducted at the PHELIX laser facility at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH with laser intensities in the range from 10 18  W cm −2 to 10 20  W cm −2 . We observed an average reduction of the half opening angle by (3.07±0.42)° or (13.2±2.0)% when the targets have a thickness between 12 μm and 14 μm. In addition, the highest proton energies were achieved with the hollow laser beam in comparison to the typical Gaussian focal spot

  19. Laser-driven ion acceleration with hollow laser beams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brabetz, C., E-mail: c.brabetz@gsi.de; Kester, O. [Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, 60323 Frankfurt (Germany); GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Busold, S.; Bagnoud, V. [GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Helmholtz-Institut Jena, 07743 Jena (Germany); Cowan, T. [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, 01328 Dresden (Germany); Technische Universität Dresden, 01069 Dresden (Germany); Deppert, O.; Jahn, D.; Roth, M. [Technische Universität Darmstadt, 64277 Darmstadt (Germany); Schumacher, D. [GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany)

    2015-01-15

    The laser-driven acceleration of protons from thin foils irradiated by hollow high-intensity laser beams in the regime of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) is reported for the first time. The use of hollow beams aims at reducing the initial emission solid angle of the TNSA source, due to a flattening of the electron sheath at the target rear side. The experiments were conducted at the PHELIX laser facility at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH with laser intensities in the range from 10{sup 18} W cm{sup −2} to 10{sup 20} W cm{sup −2}. We observed an average reduction of the half opening angle by (3.07±0.42)° or (13.2±2.0)% when the targets have a thickness between 12 μm and 14 μm. In addition, the highest proton energies were achieved with the hollow laser beam in comparison to the typical Gaussian focal spot.

  20. Enhanced efficiency of plasma acceleration in the laser-induced cavity pressure acceleration scheme

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Badziak, J; Rosiński, M; Jabłoński, S; Pisarczyk, T; Chodukowski, T; Parys, P; Rączka, P; Krousky, E; Ullschmied, J; Liska, R; Kucharik, M

    2015-01-01

    Among various methods for the acceleration of dense plasmas the mechanism called laser-induced cavity pressure acceleration (LICPA) is capable of achieving the highest energetic efficiency. In the LICPA scheme, a projectile placed in a cavity is accelerated along a guiding channel by the laser-induced thermal plasma pressure or by the radiation pressure of an intense laser radiation trapped in the cavity. This arrangement leads to a significant enhancement of the hydrodynamic or electromagnetic forces driving the projectile, relative to standard laser acceleration schemes. The aim of this paper is to review recent experimental and numerical works on LICPA with the emphasis on the acceleration of heavy plasma macroparticles and dense ion beams. The main experimental part concerns the research carried out at the kilojoule sub-nanosecond PALS laser facility in Prague. Our measurements performed at this facility, supported by advanced two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, have demonstrated that the LICPA accelerator working in the long-pulse hydrodynamic regime can be a highly efficient tool for the acceleration of heavy plasma macroparticles to hyper-velocities and the generation of ultra-high-pressure (>100 Mbar) shocks through the collision of the macroparticle with a solid target. The energetic efficiency of the macroparticle acceleration and the shock generation has been found to be significantly higher than that for other laser-based methods used so far. Using particle-in-cell simulations it is shown that the LICPA scheme is highly efficient also in the short-pulse high-intensity regime and, in particular, may be used for production of intense ion beams of multi-MeV to GeV ion energies with the energetic efficiency of tens of per cent, much higher than for conventional laser acceleration schemes. (paper)

  1. Inverse free-electron laser accelerator development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fisher, A.; Gallardo, J.; Steenbergen, A. van; Sandweiss, J.; Fang, J.M.

    1994-06-01

    The study of the Inverse Free-Electron Laser, as a potential mode of electron acceleration, has been pursued at Brookhaven National Laboratory for a number of years. More recent studies focused on the development of a low energy (few GeV), high gradient, multistage linear accelerator. The authors are presently designing a short accelerator module which will make use of the 50 MeV linac beam and high power (2 x 10 11 W) CO 2 laser beam of the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at the Center for Accelerator Physics (CAP), Brookhaven National Laboratory. These elements will be used in conjunction with a fast excitation (300 μsec pulse duration) variable period wiggler, to carry out an accelerator demonstration stage experiment

  2. Towards the petascale in electromagnetic modeling of plasma-based accelerators for high-energy physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bruhwiler, D L; Antonsen, T; Cary, J R; Cooley, J; Decyk, V K; Esarey, E; Geddes, C G R; Huang, C; Hakim, A; Katsouleas, T; Messmer, P; Mori, W B; Tsung, F S; Vieira, J; Zhou, M

    2006-01-01

    Plasma-based lepton acceleration concepts are a key element of the long-term R and D portfolio for the U.S. Office of High Energy Physics. There are many such concepts, but we consider only the laser (LWFA) and plasma (PWFA) wakefield accelerators. We present a summary of electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations for recent LWFA and PWFA experiments. These simulations, including both time explicit algorithms and reduced models, have effectively used terascale computing resources to support and guide experiments in this rapidly developing field. We briefly discuss the challenges and opportunities posed by the near-term availability of petascale computing hardware

  3. The laser accelerator-another unicorn in the garden

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hand, L. N.

    1981-07-01

    Some proposed techniques for using laser beams to accelerate charged particles was reviewed. Two specific ideas for grating type accelerating structures are discussed. Speculations are presented about how a successful laser accelerator could be used in a multipass collider; a type of machine which would have characteristics intermediate between those of synchrotrons and linear (single pass) colliders. No definite conclusions about practical structures for laser accelerators are reached, but it is suggested that a serious effort be made to design a small prototype machine. Achieving a reasonable luminosity demands that the accelerator either be a cw machine or that laser peak power requirements to be much higher than those presently available. Use of superconducting gratings requires a wavelength in the sub-millimeter range.

  4. The laser accelerator-another unicorn in the garden

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hand, L.N.

    1981-07-01

    Some proposed techniques for using laser beams to accelerate charged particles are reviewed. Two specific ideas for ''grating-type'' accelerating structures are discussed. Speculations are presented about how a successful laser accelerator could be used in a ''multi-pass collider'', a type of machine which would have characteristics intermediate between those of synchrotrons and linear (single-pass) colliders. No definite conclusions about practical structures for laser accelerators are reached, but it is suggested that a serious effort be made to design a small prototype machine. Achieving a reasonable luminosity demands that the accelerator either be a cw machine or that laser peak power requirements be much higher than those presently available. Use of superconducting gratings requires a wavelength in the sub-millimeter range. (author)

  5. Laser vacuum acceleration of a relativistic electron bunch

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Glazyrin, I V; Karpeev, A V; Kotova, O G; Nazarov, K S [E.I. Zababakhin All-Russian Scientific-Research Institute of Technical Physics, Russian Federal Nuclear Centre, Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk region (Russian Federation); Bychenkov, V Yu [P N Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2015-06-30

    With regard to the problem of laser acceleration of a relativistic electron bunch we present a scheme of its vacuum acceleration directly by a relativistic intensity laser pulse. The energy of the electron bunch injected into the laser pulse leading edge increases during its coaxial movement to a thin, pulse-reflecting target. The laser-accelerated electrons continue to move free forward, passing through the target. The study of this acceleration scheme in the three-dimensional geometry is verified in a numerical simulation by the particle-in-cell method, which showed that the energy of a part of the electrons can increase significantly compared to the initial one. Restrictions are discussed, which impose limiting values of energy and total charge of accelerated electrons. (superstrong light fields)

  6. Probing electron acceleration and x-ray emission in laser-plasma accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thaury, C.; Ta Phuoc, K.; Corde, S.; Brijesh, P.; Lambert, G.; Malka, V.; Mangles, S. P. D.; Bloom, M. S.; Kneip, S.

    2013-01-01

    While laser-plasma accelerators have demonstrated a strong potential in the acceleration of electrons up to giga-electronvolt energies, few experimental tools for studying the acceleration physics have been developed. In this paper, we demonstrate a method for probing the acceleration process. A second laser beam, propagating perpendicular to the main beam, is focused on the gas jet few nanosecond before the main beam creates the accelerating plasma wave. This second beam is intense enough to ionize the gas and form a density depletion, which will locally inhibit the acceleration. The position of the density depletion is scanned along the interaction length to probe the electron injection and acceleration, and the betatron X-ray emission. To illustrate the potential of the method, the variation of the injection position with the plasma density is studied

  7. SINBAD—The accelerator R&D facility under construction at DESY

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dorda, U., E-mail: ulrich.dorda@desy.de [DESY, Hamburg & Zeuthen (Germany); Assmann, R.; Brinkmann, R.; Flöttmann, K.; Hartl, I.; Hüning, M.; Kärtner, F.; Fallahi, A.; Marchetti, B.; Nie, Y.; Osterhoff, J.; Schlarb, H.; Zhu, J. [DESY, Hamburg & Zeuthen (Germany); Maier, A.R. [University Hamburg (Germany)

    2016-09-01

    The SINBAD facility (Short INnovative Bunches and Accelerators at DESY) is a long-term dedicated accelerator research and development facility currently under construction at DESY. It will be located in the premises of the old DORIS accelerator complex and host multiple independent experiments cost-effectively accessing the same central infrastructure like a central high power laser. With the removal of the old DORIS accelerator being completed, the refurbishment of the technical infrastructure is currently starting up. The presently ongoing conversion of the area into the SINBAD facility and the currently foreseen layout is described. The first experiment will use a compact S-band linac for the production of ultra-short bunches at hundred MeV. Once established, one of the main usages will be to externally inject electrons into a laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator to boost the energy to GeV-level while maintaining a usable beam quality, ultimately aiming to drive an FEL. The second experiment already under planning is the setup of an attosecond radiation source with advanced technology. Further usage of the available space and infrastructure is revised and national and international collaborations are being established.

  8. Laser-driven ion acceleration: methods, challenges and prospects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badziak, J.

    2018-01-01

    The recent development of laser technology has resulted in the construction of short-pulse lasers capable of generating fs light pulses with PW powers and intensities exceeding 1021 W/cm2, and has laid the basis for the multi-PW lasers, just being built in Europe, that will produce fs pulses of ultra-relativistic intensities ~ 1023 - 1024 W/cm2. The interaction of such an intense laser pulse with a dense target can result in the generation of collimated beams of ions of multi-MeV to GeV energies of sub-ps time durations and of extremely high beam intensities and ion fluencies, barely attainable with conventional RF-driven accelerators. Ion beams with such unique features have the potential for application in various fields of scientific research as well as in medical and technological developments. This paper provides a brief review of state-of-the art in laser-driven ion acceleration, with a focus on basic ion acceleration mechanisms and the production of ultra-intense ion beams. The challenges facing laser-driven ion acceleration studies, in particular those connected with potential applications of laser-accelerated ion beams, are also discussed.

  9. Experimental studies of laser guiding and wake excitation in plasma channels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Volfbeyn, P.; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA

    1998-06-01

    This thesis presents results of experimental investigations of laser guiding in plasma channels. A new technique for plasma channel creation, the Ignitor-Heater scheme was proposed and experimentally tested in hydrogen and nitrogen. It made use of two laser pulses. The Ignitor, an ultrashort ( 17 W/cm 2 , 75fs laser pulse. The guiding properties and transmission and coupling efficiency were studied as a function of relative position of the channel and the injection pulse focus. Whereas entrance coupling efficiency into the channel was lower than expected, channel coupling to continuum losses were found to be in good agreement with analytical predictions. The authors speculate that increased coupling efficiency can be achieved through better mode matching into the channel. Analytic and numerical one dimensional (1-D), nonrelativistic theory of laser pulse propagation in underdense plasma was presented, in the context of laser wakefield acceleration. The relation between the laser pulse energy depletion, longitudinal laser pulse shape distortion, and changes in the group velocity and center wavelength was explored. 1-D theory was extended to treat the case of a laser exciting a wake in a hollow plasma channel, by making use of an energy conservation argument. Based on the results of this theory, a laser wakefield diagnostic was proposed where, by measuring the changes in phase or spectrum of the driving laser pulse, it is possible to infer the amplitude of the plasma wake

  10. Wakefield generation in magnetized plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holkundkar, Amol; Brodin, Gert; Marklund, Mattias

    2011-01-01

    We consider wakefield generation in plasmas by electromagnetic pulses propagating perpendicular to a strong magnetic field, in the regime where the electron cyclotron frequency is equal to or larger than the plasma frequency. Particle-in-cell simulations reveal that for moderate magnetic field strengths previous results are reproduced, and the wakefield wave number spectrum has a clear peak at the inverse skin depth. However, when the cyclotron frequency is significantly larger than the plasma frequency, the wakefield spectrum becomes broadband, and simultaneously the loss rate of the driving pulse is much enhanced. A set of equations for the scalar and vector potentials reproducing these results are derived, using only the assumption of a weakly nonlinear interaction.

  11. The chirped-pulse inverse free-electron laser: A high-gradient vacuum laser accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hartemann, F.V.; Landahl, E.C.; Troha, A.L.; Van Meter, J.R.; Baldis, H.A.; Freeman, R.R.; Luhmann, N.C. Jr.; Song, L.; Kerman, A.K.; Yu, D.U.

    1999-01-01

    The inverse free-electron laser (IFEL) interaction is studied theoretically and computationally in the case where the drive laser intensity approaches the relativistic regime, and the pulse duration is only a few optical cycles long. The IFEL concept has been demonstrated as a viable vacuum laser acceleration process; it is shown here that by using an ultrashort, ultrahigh-intensity drive laser pulse, the IFEL interaction bandwidth and accelerating gradient are increased considerably, thus yielding large energy gains. Using a chirped pulse and negative dispersion focusing optics allows one to take further advantage of the laser optical bandwidth and produce a chromatic line focus maximizing the gradient. The combination of these novel ideas results in a compact vacuum laser accelerator capable of accelerating picosecond electron bunches with a high gradient (GeV/m) and very low energy spread. copyright 1999 American Institute of Physics

  12. Distribution uniformity of laser-accelerated proton beams

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Jun-Gao; Zhu, Kun; Tao, Li; Xu, Xiao-Han; Lin, Chen; Ma, Wen-Jun; Lu, Hai-Yang; Zhao, Yan-Ying; Lu, Yuan-Rong; Chen, Jia-Er; Yan, Xue-Qing

    2017-09-01

    Compared with conventional accelerators, laser plasma accelerators can generate high energy ions at a greatly reduced scale, due to their TV/m acceleration gradient. A compact laser plasma accelerator (CLAPA) has been built at the Institute of Heavy Ion Physics at Peking University. It will be used for applied research like biological irradiation, astrophysics simulations, etc. A beamline system with multiple quadrupoles and an analyzing magnet for laser-accelerated ions is proposed here. Since laser-accelerated ion beams have broad energy spectra and large angular divergence, the parameters (beam waist position in the Y direction, beam line layout, drift distance, magnet angles etc.) of the beamline system are carefully designed and optimised to obtain a radially symmetric proton distribution at the irradiation platform. Requirements of energy selection and differences in focusing or defocusing in application systems greatly influence the evolution of proton distributions. With optimal parameters, radially symmetric proton distributions can be achieved and protons with different energy spread within ±5% have similar transverse areas at the experiment target. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11575011, 61631001) and National Grand Instrument Project (2012YQ030142)

  13. Minimum wakefield achievable by waveguide damped cavity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, X.E.; Kroll, N.M.

    1995-01-01

    The authors use an equivalent circuit to model a waveguide damped cavity. Both exponentially damped and persistent (decay t -3/2 ) components of the wakefield are derived from this model. The result shows that for a cavity with resonant frequency a fixed interval above waveguide cutoff, the persistent wakefield amplitude is inversely proportional to the external Q value of the damped mode. The competition of the two terms results in an optimal Q value, which gives a minimum wakefield as a function of the distance behind the source particle. The minimum wakefield increases when the resonant frequency approaches the waveguide cutoff. The results agree very well with computer simulation on a real cavity-waveguide system

  14. A new awakening for accelerator cavities

    CERN Multimedia

    Katarina Anthony

    2013-01-01

    Imagine: an accelerator unbound by length; one that can bring a beam up to the TeV level in just a few hundred metres. Sounds like a dream? Perhaps not for long. At CERN’s Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE), physicists may soon be working to bring this contemporary fairy-tale to life.   The AWAKE experiment in the CNGS facility. Wherever you find a modern linear particle accelerator, you’ll find with it a lengthy series of RF accelerating cavities. Although based on technology first developed over half a century ago, RF cavities have dominated the accelerating world since their inception. However, new developments in plasma accelerator systems may soon be bringing a new player into the game. By harnessing the power of wakefields generated by beams in plasma cells, physicists may be able to produce accelerator gradients of many GV/m –  hundreds of times higher than those achieved in current RF cavities. “Plasma wakef...

  15. High power laser exciter accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martin, T.H.

    1975-01-01

    Recent developments in untriggered oil and water switching now permit the construction of compact, high energy density pulsed power sources for laser excitation. These accelerators, developed principally for electron beam fusion studies, appear adaptable to laser excitation and will provide electron beams of 10 13 to 10 14 W in the next several years. The accelerators proposed for e-beam fusion essentially concentrate the available power from the outside edge of a disk into the central region where the electron beam is formed. One of the main problem areas, that of power flow at the vacuum diode insulator, is greatly alleviated by the multiplicity of electron beams that are allowable for laser excitation. A proposal is made whereby the disk-shaped pulsed power sections are stacked vertically to form a series of radially flowing electron beams to excite the laser gas volume. (auth)

  16. 7. Lasers and plasmas forum - ILP 2015 Forum. Book of abstracts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mora, P.; Le Marec, A.; Ferri, S.; Corde, S.; Ceccotti, T.; Dozieres, M.; Pariente, G.; Azamoum, Y.; Cheriaux, G.; Baccou, C.; Romagnani, L.; Ravasio, A.; Masson-Laborde, P.E.; Laffite, S.; Neuville, C.; Casner, A.; Debayle, A.; Lobet, M.; Cosse, P.; Falize, E.; Taieb, R.; Rozmus, W.; Colaitis, A.; Boutoux, G.; Llor Aisa, E.; Ducret, J.E.; Le Pennec, M.; Barbrel, B.; Rouan, D.; Smets, R.; Seisson, G.; Boyer, S.; Massacrier, G.; Harmand, M.; Jacquemot, S.; Adam, J.C.; Boutoux, G.; Busquet, M.; Bychenkov, V. Yu.; Castan, A.; Chatagnier, A.; Chiaramello, M.; Debayle, A.; Deschaud, Basil; Do, A.; Fedeli, L.; Ferri, J.; Gangolf, T.; Gilles, D.; Vallet, A.; D'Humieres, E.; Khiar, B.; Grassi, A.; Hadj-Bachir, M.; Lee, P.; Lobet, M.; Loiseau, P.; Maitrallain, A.; Masson-Laborde, P.E.; Mollica, F.; Moreau, J.G.; Nicolas, Loic; Pain, J.-C.; Penninckx, D.; Riconda, C.; Ruyer, C.; Soleilhac, A.; Van Box Som, L.

    2015-06-01

    first experiments on the high power laser system PETAL coupled to LMJ for inertial confinement fusion studies; Laser-plasma experiments for laboratory astrophysics; Study of the Weibel Instability in Magnetized Plasma; Modeling of the trapping experiments of relativistic electrons in high intense optical lattice; Study and design of the laser wakefield electron accelerator in the framework of the Cilex project using the WARP code; Radiation effects in ultra-relativistic, high-density pair shocks; Proton radiography, stimulated Raman scattering and optical smoothing with the laser-plasma interaction code HERA; An injector for the future laser plasma accelerators; GeV Electrons due to a Transition from Laser Wakefield Acceleration to Plasma Wakefield Acceleration; Interaction of high intensity femtosecond laser with over-critical gas target for ion acceleration; Acceleration of ions in near-critical plasmas by an intense laser pulse; Streaming instability in astrophysical environments; Stark effect modeling in the SCO-RCG opacity code; Phase plate contrast influence on the spectral dispersion smoothing; Simple Scalings for Different Regimes of Electron Acceleration in Surface Plasma Waves; Analytical model of Weibel-mediated electron-ion collisionless shock formation; ERTIGO: Combined experimental and theoretical study of the ultra-fast ultra-Intense laser-absorption mechanism on hydrogen and boron enriched nanoparticles in solution for applications in nuclear fusion reactions; Experimental simulation of accretion shocks: mega-joule dimensioning of the POLAR experiment

  17. New techniques for particle accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sessler, A.M.

    1990-06-01

    A review is presented of the new techniques which have been proposed for use in particle accelerators. Attention is focused upon those areas where significant progress has been made in the last two years--in particular, upon two-beam accelerators, wakefield accelerators, and plasma focusers. 26 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab

  18. Study on the effects of ion motion on laser-induced plasma wakes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhou Suyun; Yu Wei; Yuan Xiao; Xu Han; Cao, L. H.; Cai, H. B.; Zhou, C. T.

    2012-01-01

    A 2D analytical model is presented for the generation of plasma wakes (or bubbles) with an ultra-intense laser pulse by taking into account the response of plasma ions. It is shown that the effect of ion motion becomes significant at the laser intensity exceeding 10 21 W/cm 2 and plasma background density below 10 19 cm −3 . In this regime, ion motion tends to suppress the electrostatic field induced by charge separation and makes the electron acceleration less effective. As a result, the assumption of immobile ions overestimates the efficiency of laser wake-field acceleration of electrons. Based on the analytical model, the dynamics of plasma ions in laser-induced wake field is investigated. It is found that only one bubble appears as the plasmas background density exceeds the resonant density and the deposited laser energy is concentrated into the bubble, resulting in the generation of an ion bunch with extremely high energy density.

  19. Electron acceleration in the bubble regime

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jansen, Oliver

    2014-02-03

    The bubble regime of laser-wakefield acceleration has been studied over the recent years as an important alternative to classical accelerators. Several models and theories have been published, in particular a theory which provides scaling laws for acceleration parameters such as energy gain and acceleration length. This thesis deals with numerical simulations within the bubble regime, their comparison to these scaling laws and data obtained from experiments, as well as some specific phenomenona. With a comparison of the scaling laws with numerical results a parameter scan was able to show a large parameter space in which simulation and theory agree. An investigation of the limits of this parameter space revealed boundaries to other regimes, especially at very high (a{sub 0} > 100) and very low laser amplitudes (a{sub 0} < 4). Comparing simulation data with data from experiments concerning laser pulse development and electron energies, it was found that experimental results can be adequately reproduced using the Virtual-Laser-Plasma-Laboratory code. In collaboration with the Institut fuer Optik und Quantenelektronik at the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena synchrotron radiation emitted from the inside of the bubble was investigated. A simulation of the movement of the electrons inside the bubble together with time dependent histograms of the emitted radiation helped to prove that the majority of radiation created during a bubble acceleration originates from the inside of the bubble. This radiation can be used to diagnose the amplitude of oscillation of the trapped electrons. During a further study it was proven that the polarisation of synchrotron radiation from a bubble contains information about the exact oscillation direction. This oscillation was successfully controlled by using either a laser pulse with a tilted pulse front or an asymmetric laser pulse. First results of ongoing studies concerning injecting electrons into an existing bubble and a scheme called

  20. Direct electron acceleration in plasma waveguides for compact high-repetition-rate x-ray sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, M-W; Jovanovic, I

    2014-01-01

    Numerous applications in fundamental and applied research, security, and industry require robust, compact sources of x-rays, with a particular recent interest in monochromatic, spatially coherent, and ultrafast x-ray pulses in well-collimated beams. Such x-ray sources usually require production of high-quality electron beams from compact accelerators. Guiding a radially polarized laser pulse in a plasma waveguide has been proposed for realizing direct laser acceleration (DLA), where the electrons are accelerated by the axial electric field of a co-propagating laser pulse (Serafim et al 2000 IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 28 1190). A moderate laser peak power is required for DLA when compared to laser wakefield acceleration, thus offering the prospect for high repetition rate operation. By using a density-modulated plasma waveguide for DLA, the acceleration distance can be extended with pulse guiding, while the density-modulation with proper axial structure can realize the quasi-phase matching between the laser pulses and electrons for a net gain accumulation (York et al 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 195001; York et al 2008 J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 25 B137; Palastro et al 2008 Phys. Rev. E 77 036405). We describe the development and application of a test particle model and particle-in-cell model for DLA. Experimental setups designed for fabrication of optically tailored plasma waveguides via the ignitor-heater scheme, and for generation and characterization of radially polarized short pulses used to drive DLA, are presented. (paper)

  1. Mid-infrared lasers for energy frontier plasma accelerators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. V. Pogorelsky

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Plasma wake field accelerators driven with solid-state near-IR lasers have been considered as an alternative to conventional rf accelerators for next-generation TeV-class lepton colliders. Here, we extend this study to the mid-IR spectral domain covered by CO_{2} lasers. We conclude that the increase in the laser driver wavelength favors the regime of laser wake field acceleration with a low plasma density and high electric charge. This regime is the most beneficial for gamma colliders to be converted from lepton colliders via inverse Compton scattering. Selecting a laser wavelength to drive a Compton gamma source is essential for the design of such a machine. The revealed benefits from spectral diversification of laser drivers for future colliders and off-spring applications validate ongoing efforts in advancing the ultrafast CO_{2} laser technology.

  2. Gas-filled capillaries for plasma-based accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Filippi, F; Anania, M P; Brentegani, E; Biagioni, A; Chiadroni, E; Ferrario, M; Pompili, R; Romeo, S; Cianchi, A; Zigler, A

    2017-01-01

    Plasma Wakefield Accelerators are based on the excitation of large amplitude plasma waves excited by either a laser or a particle driver beam. The amplitude of the waves, as well as their spatial dimensions and the consequent accelerating gradient depend strongly on the background electron density along the path of the accelerated particles. The process needs stable and reliable plasma sources, whose density profile must be controlled and properly engineered to ensure the appropriate accelerating mechanism. Plasma confinement inside gas filled capillaries have been studied in the past since this technique allows to control the evolution of the plasma, ensuring a stable and repeatable plasma density distribution during the interaction with the drivers. Moreover, in a gas filled capillary plasma can be pre-ionized by a current discharge to avoid ionization losses. Different capillary geometries have been studied to allow the proper temporal and spatial evolution of the plasma along the acceleration length. Results of this analysis obtained by varying the length and the number of gas inlets will be presented. (paper)

  3. Gas-filled capillaries for plasma-based accelerators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filippi, F.; Anania, M. P.; Brentegani, E.; Biagioni, A.; Cianchi, A.; Chiadroni, E.; Ferrario, M.; Pompili, R.; Romeo, S.; Zigler, A.

    2017-07-01

    Plasma Wakefield Accelerators are based on the excitation of large amplitude plasma waves excited by either a laser or a particle driver beam. The amplitude of the waves, as well as their spatial dimensions and the consequent accelerating gradient depend strongly on the background electron density along the path of the accelerated particles. The process needs stable and reliable plasma sources, whose density profile must be controlled and properly engineered to ensure the appropriate accelerating mechanism. Plasma confinement inside gas filled capillaries have been studied in the past since this technique allows to control the evolution of the plasma, ensuring a stable and repeatable plasma density distribution during the interaction with the drivers. Moreover, in a gas filled capillary plasma can be pre-ionized by a current discharge to avoid ionization losses. Different capillary geometries have been studied to allow the proper temporal and spatial evolution of the plasma along the acceleration length. Results of this analysis obtained by varying the length and the number of gas inlets will be presented.

  4. Introduction to wakefields and wake potentials

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wilson, P.B.

    1989-01-01

    What are wakefields and wake potentials, and why are these concepts useful in the physics of linear accelerators and storage rings We approach this question by first reviewing the basic physical concepts which underlie the mathematical formalism. We then present a summary of the various techniques that have been developed to make detailed calculations of wake potentials. Finally, we give some applications to current problems of interest in accelerator physics. No attempt at completeness can be made in an introductory article of modest length. Rather, we try to give a broad overview and to list key references for more detailed study. It will also be apparent that the last chapter on this subject, with all the loose ends neatly tied up, has yet to be written. There are subtle points, there are controversial questions, and active calculations to resolve these questions are continuing at the time of this writing. 61 refs., 10 figs., 1 tab.

  5. Introduction to wakefields and wake potentials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilson, P.B.

    1989-01-01

    What are wakefields and wake potentials, and why are these concepts useful in the physics of linear accelerators and storage rings? We approach this question by first reviewing the basic physical concepts which underlie the mathematical formalism. We then present a summary of the various techniques that have been developed to make detailed calculations of wake potentials. Finally, we give some applications to current problems of interest in accelerator physics. No attempt at completeness can be made in an introductory article of modest length. Rather, we try to give a broad overview and to list key references for more detailed study. It will also be apparent that the last chapter on this subject, with all the loose ends neatly tied up, has yet to be written. There are subtle points, there are controversial questions, and active calculations to resolve these questions are continuing at the time of this writing. 61 refs., 10 figs., 1 tab

  6. Comment on “Beamstrahlung considerations in laser-plasma-accelerator-based linear colliders”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valeri Lebedev

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Schroeder, Esarey, Geddes, Benedetti, and Leemans [Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 13, 101301 (2010PRABFM1098-440210.1103/PhysRevSTAB.13.101301 and Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 15, 051301 (2012PRABFM1098-440210.1103/PhysRevSTAB.15.051301] have proposed a set of parameters for a TeV-scale collider based on plasma wakefield accelerator principles. In particular, it is sugested that the luminosities greater than 10^{34}  cm^{-2} s^{-1} are attainable for an electron-positron collider. In this Comment we dispute this set of parameters on the basis of first principles. The interactions of accelerating beam with plasma impose fundamental limitations on beam properties and, thus, on attainable luminosity values.

  7. Wakefield calculations on parallel computers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schoessow, P.

    1990-01-01

    The use of parallelism in the solution of wakefield problems is illustrated for two different computer architectures (SIMD and MIMD). Results are given for finite difference codes which have been implemented on a Connection Machine and an Alliant FX/8 and which are used to compute wakefields in dielectric loaded structures. Benchmarks on code performance are presented for both cases. 4 refs., 3 figs., 2 tabs

  8. Laser-plasma booster for ion post acceleration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Satoh D.

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available A remarkable ion energy increase is demonstrated for post acceleration by a laser-plasma booster. An intense short-pulse laser generates a strong current by high-energy electrons accelerated, when this intense short-pulse laser illuminates a plasma target. The strong electric current creates a strong magnetic field along the high-energy electron current in plasma. During the increase phase in the magnetic field, a longitudinal inductive electric field is induced for the forward ion acceleration by the Faraday law. Our 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate a remarkable increase in ion energy by several tens of MeV.

  9. Simulation and characterization of the RF system and global stability analysis at the REGAE linear electron accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mayet, Frank

    2012-12-01

    LAOLA (LAboratory for Laser- and beam-driven plasma Acceleration), is a collaboration between groups from DESY and the University of Hamburg. Its mission is to complement basic research in the relatively new field of plasma wakefield acceleration (PWA) by an explicit combination with DESY's conventional, modern accelerators. The linear electron accelerator REGAE is designed to produce sub 10 fs low charge electron bunches with ultra-low emittance at a repetition rate of 50 Hz. The planned experiments include femtosecond electron diffraction (R.J. Dwayne Miller), as well as the probing of laser induced plasma wakefields with well characterized bunches (LAOLA). They all require high bunch time of flight stability down to 10 fs. The REGAE machine consists of two RF cavities, both fed by a single klystron. While the first one - the gun cavity - is used for acceleration of the electrons, the second one - the buncher cavity - can be used to reduce the electron bunch length. This scheme only works for a specific RF phase relation between the two cavities. This thesis is split into two parts. In the first one the implications of the unique two cavity design on day-to-day machine operation are analyzed. To this end an analytical model of the RF system is developed, which is necessary for understanding how to individually adjust the cavity phases. In the second part the influence of the setup on time of flight stability is discussed with an emphasis on phase jitter compensation. RF phase stability measurements reveal that the current machine setup allows for a time of flight stability down to 50 fs right after the gun.

  10. Simulation and characterization of the RF system and global stability analysis at the REGAE linear electron accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mayet, Frank

    2012-12-15

    LAOLA (LAboratory for Laser- and beam-driven plasma Acceleration), is a collaboration between groups from DESY and the University of Hamburg. Its mission is to complement basic research in the relatively new field of plasma wakefield acceleration (PWA) by an explicit combination with DESY's conventional, modern accelerators. The linear electron accelerator REGAE is designed to produce sub 10 fs low charge electron bunches with ultra-low emittance at a repetition rate of 50 Hz. The planned experiments include femtosecond electron diffraction (R.J. Dwayne Miller), as well as the probing of laser induced plasma wakefields with well characterized bunches (LAOLA). They all require high bunch time of flight stability down to 10 fs. The REGAE machine consists of two RF cavities, both fed by a single klystron. While the first one - the gun cavity - is used for acceleration of the electrons, the second one - the buncher cavity - can be used to reduce the electron bunch length. This scheme only works for a specific RF phase relation between the two cavities. This thesis is split into two parts. In the first one the implications of the unique two cavity design on day-to-day machine operation are analyzed. To this end an analytical model of the RF system is developed, which is necessary for understanding how to individually adjust the cavity phases. In the second part the influence of the setup on time of flight stability is discussed with an emphasis on phase jitter compensation. RF phase stability measurements reveal that the current machine setup allows for a time of flight stability down to 50 fs right after the gun.

  11. Summary Report of Working Group 1: Laser-Plasma Acceleration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Geddes, C.G.R.; Clayton, C.; Lu, W.; Thomas, A.G.R.

    2010-06-01

    Advances in and physics of the acceleration of particles using underdense plasma structures driven by lasers were the topics of presentations and discussions in Working Group 1 of the 2010 Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop. Such accelerators have demonstrated gradients several orders beyond conventional machines, with quasi-monoenergetic beams at MeV-GeV energies, making them attractive candidates for next generation accelerators. Workshop discussions included advances in control over injection and laser propagation to further improve beam quality and stability, detailed diagnostics and physics models of the acceleration process, radiation generation as a source and diagnostic, and technological tools and upcoming facilities to extend the reach of laser-plasma accelerators.

  12. Summary Report of Working Group 1: Laser-Plasma Acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geddes, C.G.R.; Clayton, C.; Lu, W.; Thomas, A.G.R.

    2010-01-01

    Advances in and physics of the acceleration of particles using underdense plasma structures driven by lasers were the topics of presentations and discussions in Working Group 1 of the 2010 Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop. Such accelerators have demonstrated gradients several orders beyond conventional machines, with quasi-monoenergetic beams at MeV-GeV energies, making them attractive candidates for next generation accelerators. Workshop discussions included advances in control over injection and laser propagation to further improve beam quality and stability, detailed diagnostics and physics models of the acceleration process, radiation generation as a source and diagnostic, and technological tools and upcoming facilities to extend the reach of laser-plasma accelerators.

  13. MuSiC: a Multibunch and multiparticle Simulation Code with an alternative approach to wakefield effects

    CERN Document Server

    Migliorati, M

    2015-01-01

    The simulation of beam dynamics in presence of collective effects requires a strong computational effort to take into account, in a self consistent way, the wakefield acting on a given charge and produced by all the others. Generally this is done by means of a convolution integral or sum. Moreover, if the electromagnetic fields consist of resonant modes with high quality factors, responsible, for example, of coupled bunch instabilities, a charge is also affected by itself in previous turns, and a very long record of wakefield must be properly taken into account. In this paper we present a new simulation code for the longitudinal beam dynamics in a circular accelerator, which exploits an alternative approach to the currently used convolution sum, reducing the computing time and avoiding the issues related to the length of wakefield for coupled bunch instabilities. With this approach it is possible to simulate, without the need of a large computing power, simultaneously, the single and multi-bunch beam dynamics...

  14. Advanced Electron Linacs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Siemann, R.

    2005-02-14

    The research into advanced acceleration concepts for electron linear accelerators being pursued at SLAC is reviewed. This research includes experiments in laser acceleration, plasma wakefield acceleration, and mmwavelength RF driven accelerators.

  15. 179th International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi" : Laser-Plasma Acceleration

    CERN Document Server

    Gizzi, L A; Faccini, R

    2012-01-01

    Impressive progress has been made in the field of laser-plasma acceleration in the last decade, with outstanding achievements from both experimental and theoretical viewpoints. Closely exploiting the development of ultra-intense, ultrashort pulse lasers, laser-plasma acceleration has developed rapidly, achieving accelerating gradients of the order of tens of GeV/m, and making the prospect of miniature accelerators a more realistic possibility. This book presents the lectures delivered at the Enrico Fermi International School of Physics and summer school: "Laser-Plasma Acceleration" , held in Varenna, Italy, in June 2011. The school provided an opportunity for young scientists to experience the best from the worlds of laser-plasma and accelerator physics, with intensive training and hands-on opportunities related to key aspects of laser-plasma acceleration. Subjects covered include: the secrets of lasers; the power of numerical simulations; beam dynamics; and the elusive world of laboratory plasmas. The object...

  16. AWAKE starts the equipment installation phase

    CERN Multimedia

    Antonella Del Rosso

    2015-01-01

    AWAKE is the proof-of-principle experiment whose aim is to use protons to generate powerful wakefields to accelerate an electron beam. With accelerator gradients hundreds of times higher than those used in current systems, this technique could revolutionise the field of particle acceleration. Installed in the tunnel previously used by the CNGS facility, AWAKE is completing the service installation phase and will receive the plasma cell in the coming months.   The AWAKE proton line with all the magnets installed. (Image: AWAKE collaboration.) AWAKE is the world’s first proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment. In AWAKE, a beam of protons from the SPS will be travelling through a plasma cell and this will generate a wakefield that, in turn, will accelerate an electron beam. A laser will ionise the gas in the plasma cell and seed the self-modulation instability that will trigger the wakefield in the plasma. The project aims to prove that the plasma wakefield can be driv...

  17. Multidimensional Plasma Wake Excitation in the Non-linear Blowout Regime

    CERN Document Server

    Vieira, J.; Silva, L.O.

    2016-01-01

    Plasma accelerators can sustain very high acceleration gradients. They are promising candidates for future generations of particle accelerators for sev- eral scientific, medical and technological applications. Current plasma based acceleration experiments operate in the relativistic regime, where the plasma response is strongly non-linear. We outline some of the key properties of wake- field excitation in these regimes. We outline a multidimensional theory for the excitation of plasma wakefields in connection with current experiments. We then use these results and provide design guidelines for the choice of laser and plasma parameters ensuring a stable laser wakefield accelerator that maximizes the quality of the accelerated electrons. We also mention some of the future challenges associated with this technology.

  18. Transverse particle acceleration techniques using lasers and masers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schoen, N.C.

    1983-01-01

    The concept discussed herein uses an intense traveling electromagnetic wave, produced by a laser or maser source, to accelerate electrons in the Rayleigh region of a focused beam. Although the possibility of non-synchronous acceleration has been considered, very little analysis of potential device configurations has been reported. Computer simulations of the acceleration process indicate practical figure of merit values in the range of 100 MeV/m for achievable electric field strengths with current technology. The development of compact, high energy electron accelerators will provide an essential component for many new technologies. Such as high power free electron lasers, X-ray and VUV sources, and high power millimeter and microwave devices. Considerable effort has been directed toward studies of new concepts for electron acceleration, including inverse free electron lasers, GYRACS, and modified betatrons

  19. Interaction of ultra-short ultra-intense laser pulses with under-dense plasmas; Interaction d'impulsions laser ultra-courtes et ultra-intenses avec des plasmas sous denses

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Solodov, A

    2000-12-15

    Different aspects of interaction of ultra-short ultra-intense laser pulses with underdense plasmas are studied analytically and numerically. These studies can be interesting for laser-driven electron acceleration in plasma, X-ray lasers, high-order harmonic generation, initial confinement fusion with fast ignition. For numerical simulations a fully-relativistic particle code WAKE was used, developed earlier at Ecole Polytechnique. It was modified during the work on the thesis in the part of simulation of ion motion, test electron motion, diagnostics for the field and plasma. The studies in the thesis cover the problems of photon acceleration in the plasma wake of a short intense laser pulse, phase velocity of the plasma wave in the Self-Modulated Laser Wake-Field Accelerator (SM LWFA), relativistic channeling of laser pulses with duration of the order of a plasma period, ion dynamics in the wake of a short intense laser pulse, plasma wave breaking. Simulation of three experiments on the laser pulse propagation in plasma and electron acceleration were performed. Among the main results of the thesis, it was found that reduction of the plasma wave phase velocity in the SM LWFA is crucial for electron acceleration, only if a plasma channel is used for the laser pulse guiding. Self-similar structures describing relativistic guiding of short laser pulses in plasmas were found and relativistic channeling of initially Gaussian laser pulses of a few plasma periods in duration was demonstrated. It was shown that ponderomotive force of a plasma wake excited by a short laser pulse forms a channel in plasma and plasma wave breaking in the channel was analyzed in detail. Effectiveness of electron acceleration by the laser field and plasma wave was compared and frequency shift of probe laser pulses by the plasma waves was found in conditions relevant to the current experiments. (author)

  20. Photonic laser-driven accelerator for GALAXIE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Naranjo, B.; Ho, M.; Hoang, P.; Putterman, S.; Valloni, A.; Rosenzweig, J. B. [UCLA Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547 (United States)

    2012-12-21

    We report on the design and development of an all-dielectric laser-driven accelerator to be used in the GALAXIE (GV-per-meter Acce Lerator And X-ray-source Integrated Experiment) project's compact free-electron laser. The approach of our working design is to construct eigenmodes, borrowing from the field of photonics, which yield the appropriate, highly demanding dynamics in a high-field, short wavelength accelerator. Topics discussed include transverse focusing, power coupling, bunching, and fabrication.

  1. Wakefield accelerator with hybrid plasma-dielectric structure of rectangular cross-section

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiselev, V.A.; Linnik, A.F.; Mirnyj, V.I.; Onishchenko, I.N.; Uskov, V.V.

    2010-01-01

    Increase of wakefield intensity at its excitation by a long train of relativistic electron bunches in the rectangular dielectric structure when it is filled with plasma of resonant density was experimentally observed. The first portion of the bunches, produced by electron linac 'Almaz-2', ionizes gas at atmospheric pressure so that plasma frequency becomes equal to bunch repetition frequency and to the frequency of principal Eigen mode of the dielectric structure. Excitation enhancement at such resonant conditions is being studied taking into account the improvement of bunch train propagation in the transit channel caused by charge compensation with plasma and the electrodynamics change of the dielectric structure at filling with plasma.

  2. Staged electron laser accelerator (STELLA) experiment at brookhaven ATF

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pogorelsky, I V; Steenbergen, A van; Gallardo, J C [Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States); and others

    1998-03-01

    The STELLA experiment is being prepared at the BNL Accelerator Test Facility (STF). The goal of the experiment is to demonstrate quasi-monochromatic inverse Cherenkov acceleration (ICA) of electrons bunched to the laser wavelength period. Microbunches on the order of 2 {mu}m in length separated by 10.6 {mu}m will be produced using an inverse free electron laser (IFEL) accelerator driven by a CO{sub 2} laser. The design and simulations for two phases of this experiment including demonstration of 10 MeV and 100 MeV acceleration are presented. (author)

  3. Ion acceleration from relativistic laser nano-target

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jung, Daniel

    2012-01-06

    Laser-ion acceleration has been of particular interest over the last decade for fundamental as well as applied sciences. Remarkable progress has been made in realizing laser-driven accelerators that are cheap and very compact compared with conventional rf-accelerators. Proton and ion beams have been produced with particle energies of up to 50 MeV and several MeV/u, respectively, with outstanding properties in terms of transverse emittance and current. These beams typically exhibit an exponentially decaying energy distribution, but almost all advanced applications, such as oncology, proton imaging or fast ignition, require quasimonoenergetic beams with a low energy spread. The majority of the experiments investigated ion acceleration in the target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) regime with comparably thick targets in the {mu}m range. In this thesis ion acceleration is investigated from nm-scaled targets, which are partially produced at the University of Munich with thickness as low as 3 nm. Experiments have been carried out at LANL's Trident high-power and high-contrast laser (80 J, 500 fs, {lambda}=1054 nm), where ion acceleration with these nano-targets occurs during the relativistic transparency of the target, in the so-called Breakout afterburner (BOA) regime. With a novel high resolution and high dispersion Thomson parabola and ion wide angle spectrometer, thickness dependencies of the ions angular distribution, particle number, average and maximum energy have been measured. Carbon C{sup 6+} energies reached 650 MeV and 1 GeV for unheated and heated targets, respectively, and proton energies peaked at 75 MeV and 120 MeV for diamond and CH{sub 2} targets. Experimental data is presented, where the conversion efficiency into carbon C{sup 6+} (protons) is investigated and found to have an up to 10fold (5fold) increase over the TNSA regime. With circularly polarized laser light, quasi-monoenergetic carbon ions have been generated from the same nm-scaled foil

  4. Laser and Particle Guiding Micro-Elements for Particle Accelerators

    CERN Document Server

    Plettner, Tomas; Spencer, James; Wisdom, Jeffrey

    2005-01-01

    Laser driven particle accelerators based on the current generation of lasers will require sub-micron control of the laser field as well as precise beam guiding. Hence the fabrication techniques that allow integrating both elements into an accelerator-on-chip format become critical for the success of such particle accelerators. Micromachining technology for silicon has been shown to be one such feasible technology in PAC2003 but with a variety of complications on the laser side. Fortunately, in recent years the fabrication of transparent ceramics has become an interesting technology that could be applied for laser-particle accelerators in several ways. We discuss this area, its advantages such as the range of materials it provides and various ways to implement it followed by some different test examples that have been considered. One important goal of this approach is an integrated system that could avoid the necessity of having to inject either laser or particle pulses into these structures.

  5. Interaction of Intense Lasers with Plasmas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shvets, Gennady

    1995-01-01

    of wakefields in a hollow plasma channel by an intense laser pulse is studied analytically. An important finding is that the resonant absorption in the channel wall dissipates the accelerating wake, thereby introducing a finite quality factor of the hollow plasma channel and reducing the number of electron bunches that can be accelerated in the wake of a single laser pulse. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.) (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

  6. Laser technology inspires new accelerator concepts

    CERN Multimedia

    Katarina Anthony

    2012-01-01

    A new EU-funded research network, LA³NET, is bringing together universities, research centres and industry partners worldwide to explore the use of laser technology in particle beam generation, acceleration and diagnostics. As one of the network partners, CERN will be hosting three early stage researchers in the BE and EN Departments.   One of the laser systems now in use in the ISOLDE experiment. If you take a closer look at recent experimental developments, you’ll notice a new topic trending: laser technology. It’s being used to study the characteristics of particles, as incorporated into the new ALPHA-2 set-up; to conduct diagnostics of particle beams, as used in a laser wire scanner at Petra III; to “breed” unusual ion beams, as carried out by ISOLDE’s Resonance Ionization Laser Ion Source (RILIS); and even to accelerate particles to high energies, as explored at Berkeley’s BELLA facility. These projects notwithstanding...

  7. Laser–capillary interaction for the EXIN project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bisesto, F.G., E-mail: fabrizio.giuseppe.bisesto@lnf.infn.it [INFN-LNF, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Sapienza – University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 2, 00185 Rome (Italy); Anania, M.P. [INFN-LNF, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Bacci, A.L. [INFN – Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133 Milan (Italy); Bellaveglia, M.; Chiadroni, E. [INFN-LNF, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Cianchi, A. [INFN-LNF, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Universit degli studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Via di Tor Vergata, Rome (Italy); Curcio, A. [INFN-LNF, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Sapienza – University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 2, 00185 Rome (Italy); Di Giovenale, D.; Di Pirro, G.; Ferrario, M.; Galletti, M.; Gallo, A.; Ghigo, A. [INFN-LNF, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Marocchino, A.; Mostacci, A.; Petrarca, M. [Sapienza – University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 2, 00185 Rome (Italy); INFN – Roma1, P.le Aldo Moro, 2, 00185 Rome (Italy); Pompili, R. [INFN-LNF, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Rossi, A.R.; Serafini, L. [INFN – Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133 Milan (Italy); Vaccarezza, C. [INFN-LNF, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy)

    2016-09-01

    The EXIN project is under development within the SPARC-LAB facility of the National Laboratory of Frascati (LNF-INFN). This project aims to accelerate pre-existing electron bunches with high brightness by exploiting the wakefield plasma acceleration technique, while preserving the initial brightness. The wakefield is excited inside a dielectric capillary by high intensity laser pulses produced by the FLAME laser interacting with a gas. In this work, we present numerical simulations in order to optimize energy coupling between our laser with super-Gaussian transverse profile and a dielectric capillary. Moreover, an overview of the experimental layout will be given.

  8. Envelope evolution of a laser pulse in an active medium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fisher, D.L.; Tajima, T.; Downer, M.C.; Siders, C.W.

    1994-11-01

    The authors show that the envelope velocity, v env , of a short laser pulse can, via propagation in an active medium, be made less than, equal to, or even greater than c, the vacuum phase velocity of light. Simulation results, based on moving frame propagation equations coupling the laser pulse, active medium and plasma, are presented, as well as equations that determines the design value of super- and sub-luminous v env . In this simulation the laser pulse evolves in time in a moving frame as opposed to their earlier work where the profile was fixed. The elimination of phase slippage and pump depletion effects in the laser wakefield accelerator is discussed as a particular application. Finally they discuss media properties necessary for an experimental realization of this technique

  9. Interaction of ultra-short ultra-intense laser pulses with under-dense plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Solodov, A.

    2000-12-01

    Different aspects of interaction of ultra-short ultra-intense laser pulses with underdense plasmas are studied analytically and numerically. These studies can be interesting for laser-driven electron acceleration in plasma, X-ray lasers, high-order harmonic generation, initial confinement fusion with fast ignition. For numerical simulations a fully-relativistic particle code WAKE was used, developed earlier at Ecole Polytechnique. It was modified during the work on the thesis in the part of simulation of ion motion, test electron motion, diagnostics for the field and plasma. The studies in the thesis cover the problems of photon acceleration in the plasma wake of a short intense laser pulse, phase velocity of the plasma wave in the Self-Modulated Laser Wake-Field Accelerator (SM LWFA), relativistic channeling of laser pulses with duration of the order of a plasma period, ion dynamics in the wake of a short intense laser pulse, plasma wave breaking. Simulation of three experiments on the laser pulse propagation in plasma and electron acceleration were performed. Among the main results of the thesis, it was found that reduction of the plasma wave phase velocity in the SM LWFA is crucial for electron acceleration, only if a plasma channel is used for the laser pulse guiding. Self-similar structures describing relativistic guiding of short laser pulses in plasmas were found and relativistic channeling of initially Gaussian laser pulses of a few plasma periods in duration was demonstrated. It was shown that ponderomotive force of a plasma wake excited by a short laser pulse forms a channel in plasma and plasma wave breaking in the channel was analyzed in detail. Effectiveness of electron acceleration by the laser field and plasma wave was compared and frequency shift of probe laser pulses by the plasma waves was found in conditions relevant to the current experiments. (author)

  10. Load management strategy for Particle-In-Cell simulations in high energy particle acceleration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Beck, A., E-mail: beck@llr.in2p3.fr [Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet, École polytechnique, CNRS-IN2P3, Palaiseau 91128 (France); Frederiksen, J.T. [Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 København Ø (Denmark); Dérouillat, J. [CEA, Maison de La Simulation, 91400 Saclay (France)

    2016-09-01

    In the wake of the intense effort made for the experimental CILEX project, numerical simulation campaigns have been carried out in order to finalize the design of the facility and to identify optimal laser and plasma parameters. These simulations bring, of course, important insight into the fundamental physics at play. As a by-product, they also characterize the quality of our theoretical and numerical models. In this paper, we compare the results given by different codes and point out algorithmic limitations both in terms of physical accuracy and computational performances. These limitations are illustrated in the context of electron laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). The main limitation we identify in state-of-the-art Particle-In-Cell (PIC) codes is computational load imbalance. We propose an innovative algorithm to deal with this specific issue as well as milestones towards a modern, accurate high-performance PIC code for high energy particle acceleration.

  11. Laser-ablation-based ion source characterization and manipulation for laser-driven ion acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sommer, P.; Metzkes-Ng, J.; Brack, F.-E.; Cowan, T. E.; Kraft, S. D.; Obst, L.; Rehwald, M.; Schlenvoigt, H.-P.; Schramm, U.; Zeil, K.

    2018-05-01

    For laser-driven ion acceleration from thin foils (∼10 μm–100 nm) in the target normal sheath acceleration regime, the hydro-carbon contaminant layer at the target surface generally serves as the ion source and hence determines the accelerated ion species, i.e. mainly protons, carbon and oxygen ions. The specific characteristics of the source layer—thickness and relevant lateral extent—as well as its manipulation have both been investigated since the first experiments on laser-driven ion acceleration using a variety of techniques from direct source imaging to knife-edge or mesh imaging. In this publication, we present an experimental study in which laser ablation in two fluence regimes (low: F ∼ 0.6 J cm‑2, high: F ∼ 4 J cm‑2) was applied to characterize and manipulate the hydro-carbon source layer. The high-fluence ablation in combination with a timed laser pulse for particle acceleration allowed for an estimation of the relevant source layer thickness for proton acceleration. Moreover, from these data and independently from the low-fluence regime, the lateral extent of the ion source layer became accessible.

  12. Advanced approaches to high intensity laser-driven ion acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henig, Andreas

    2010-01-01

    Since the pioneering work that was carried out 10 years ago, the generation of highly energetic ion beams from laser-plasma interactions has been investigated in much detail in the regime of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA). Creation of ion beams with small longitudinal and transverse emittance and energies extending up to tens of MeV fueled visions of compact, laser-driven ion sources for applications such as ion beam therapy of tumors or fast ignition inertial con finement fusion. However, new pathways are of crucial importance to push the current limits of laser-generated ion beams further towards parameters necessary for those applications. The presented PhD work was intended to develop and explore advanced approaches to high intensity laser-driven ion acceleration that reach beyond TNSA. In this spirit, ion acceleration from two novel target systems was investigated, namely mass-limited microspheres and nm-thin, free-standing diamond-like carbon (DLC) foils. Using such ultrathin foils, a new regime of ion acceleration was found where the laser transfers energy to all electrons located within the focal volume. While for TNSA the accelerating electric field is stationary and ion acceleration is spatially separated from laser absorption into electrons, now a localized longitudinal field enhancement is present that co-propagates with the ions as the accompanying laser pulse pushes the electrons forward. Unprecedented maximum ion energies were obtained, reaching beyond 0.5 GeV for carbon C 6+ and thus exceeding previous TNSA results by about one order of magnitude. When changing the laser polarization to circular, electron heating and expansion were shown to be efficiently suppressed, resulting for the first time in a phase-stable acceleration that is dominated by the laser radiation pressure which led to the observation of a peaked C 6+ spectrum. Compared to quasi-monoenergetic ion beam generation within the TNSA regime, a more than 40 times increase in

  13. Advanced approaches to high intensity laser-driven ion acceleration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Henig, Andreas

    2010-04-26

    Since the pioneering work that was carried out 10 years ago, the generation of highly energetic ion beams from laser-plasma interactions has been investigated in much detail in the regime of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA). Creation of ion beams with small longitudinal and transverse emittance and energies extending up to tens of MeV fueled visions of compact, laser-driven ion sources for applications such as ion beam therapy of tumors or fast ignition inertial con finement fusion. However, new pathways are of crucial importance to push the current limits of laser-generated ion beams further towards parameters necessary for those applications. The presented PhD work was intended to develop and explore advanced approaches to high intensity laser-driven ion acceleration that reach beyond TNSA. In this spirit, ion acceleration from two novel target systems was investigated, namely mass-limited microspheres and nm-thin, free-standing diamond-like carbon (DLC) foils. Using such ultrathin foils, a new regime of ion acceleration was found where the laser transfers energy to all electrons located within the focal volume. While for TNSA the accelerating electric field is stationary and ion acceleration is spatially separated from laser absorption into electrons, now a localized longitudinal field enhancement is present that co-propagates with the ions as the accompanying laser pulse pushes the electrons forward. Unprecedented maximum ion energies were obtained, reaching beyond 0.5 GeV for carbon C{sup 6+} and thus exceeding previous TNSA results by about one order of magnitude. When changing the laser polarization to circular, electron heating and expansion were shown to be efficiently suppressed, resulting for the first time in a phase-stable acceleration that is dominated by the laser radiation pressure which led to the observation of a peaked C{sup 6+} spectrum. Compared to quasi-monoenergetic ion beam generation within the TNSA regime, a more than 40 times

  14. Collective ion acceleration via laser controlled ionization channel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Destler, W.W.; O'Shea, P.G.; Rodgers, J.; Segalov, Z.

    1987-01-01

    Initial results from a successful laser-controlled collective ion acceleration experiment at the University of Maryland are presented. In the experiment, positive ions are trapped in the potential well at the head of an intense relativistic electron beam injected at current levels above the space charge limit. Seed ions for acceleration are provided by puff valve injection of a neutral gas cloud localized to within 3 cm of the injection point. Control over the acceleration of the well and the ions is then achieved by means of a laser-generated ionization channel produced by passing the light from a Q-switched ruby laser through a series of partially and fully reflecting mirrors in such a way as to provide time-sequenced laser ionization of a target located on the drift tube wall. Using this system, controlled acceleration of protons at a rate of approximately 40 MV/m has been demonstrated over a distance of about 50 cm

  15. Tunable Laser Plasma Accelerator based on Longitudinal Density Tailoring

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gonsalves, Anthony; Nakamura, Kei; Lin, Chen; Panasenko, Dmitriy; Shiraishi, Satomi; Sokollik, Thomas; Benedetti, Carlo; Schroeder, Carl; Geddes, Cameron; Tilborg, Jeroen van; Osterhoff, Jens; Esarey, Eric; Toth, Csaba; Leemans, Wim

    2011-07-15

    Laser plasma accelerators have produced high-quality electron beams with GeV energies from cm-scale devices and are being investigated as hyperspectral fs light sources producing THz to {gamma}-ray radiation and as drivers for future high-energy colliders. These applications require a high degree of stability, beam quality and tunability. Here we report on a technique to inject electrons into the accelerating field of a laser-driven plasma wave and coupling of this injector to a lower-density, separately tunable plasma for further acceleration. The technique relies on a single laser pulse powering a plasma structure with a tailored longitudinal density profile, to produce beams that can be tuned in the range of 100-400 MeV with percent-level stability, using laser pulses of less than 40 TW. The resulting device is a simple stand-alone accelerator or the front end for a multistage higher-energy accelerator.

  16. Studies on mechanisms of the laser particle acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aurand, Bastian

    2012-01-01

    Within the last decade, many developments towards higher energies and particle numbers paved the way of particle acceleration performed by high intensity laser systems. Up to now, the process of a field-induced acceleration process (Target-Normal-Sheath-Acceleration (TNSA)) is investigated the most. Acceleration occurs as a consequence of separation of charges on a surface potential. Here, the broad energy spectrum is a problem not yet overcome although many improvements were achieved. Calculations for intensities higher than 10 20..21 W/cm 2 give hint that Radiation-Pressure-Acceleration (RPA) may lead to a sharper, monoenergetic energy spectrum. Within the framework of this thesis, the investigation of the acceleration mechanism is studied experimentally in the intensity range of 10 19 W/cm 2 . Suitable targets were developed and applied for patent. A broad range of parameters was scanned by means of high repetition rates together with an adequate laser system to provide high statistics of several thousands of shots, and the dependence of target material, intensity, laser polarisation and pre plasma-conditions was verified. Comparisons with 2-d numeric simulations lead to a model of the acceleration process which was analyzed by several diagnostic methods, giving clear evidence for a new, not field-induced acceleration process. In addition, a system for a continuous variation of the polarization based on reflective optics was developed in order to overcome the disadvantages of retardation plates, and their practicability of high laser energies can be achieved.

  17. Acceleration of polyethelene foils by laser driven ablation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahlstrom, H.G.; Burginyon, G.A.; Haas, R.A.

    1974-01-01

    The production of thermonuclear energy, by laser driven implosion of spherical DT shells, with achievable laser technology, requires the development of an efficient and stable implosion. Certain aspects of the acceleration of the spherical shells can be studied experimentally by irradiating thin, 5 to 25 μm, polyethelene foils. The results of foil acceleration experiments performed using a Nd:YAG-Glass laser capable of producing 150 J, 1 nsec pulses will be discussed. The dynamics of the accelerated foil, the ion blow off, high energy electron spectrum (6 to 180 keV), x-ray spectrum (1 to 150 keV) the spatial distribution of the x-ray emission, the laser beam focal spot energy distribution, the laser temporal pulse shape and spectrum for reflected and transmitted radiation have all been measured simultaneously. The results of these measurements are compared with detailed numerical simulations. (U.S.)

  18. Design of a free-electron laser driven by the LBNL laser-plasma-accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schroeder, C.B.; Fawley, W.M.; Montgomery, A.L.; Robinson, K.E.; Gruner, F.; Bakeman, M.; Leemans, W.P.

    2007-01-01

    We discuss the design and current status of a compact free-electron laser (FEL), generating ultra-fast, high-peak flux, VUV pulses driven by a high-current, GeV electron beam from the existing Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) laser-plasma accelerator, whose active acceleration length is only a few cm. The proposed ultra-fast source would be intrinsically temporally synchronized to the drive laser pulse, enabling pump-probe studies in ultra-fast science with pulse lengths of tens of fs. Owing to the high current ( and 10 kA) of the laser-plasma-accelerated electron beams, saturated output fluxes are potentially greater than 1013 photons/pulse. Devices based both on SASE and high-harmonic generated input seeds, to reduce undulator length and fluctuations, are considered

  19. Scaling electron acceleration in the bubble regime for upcoming lasers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jansen, O.; Tueckmantel, T.; Pukhov, A.

    2014-01-01

    Electron acceleration in the laser-plasma bubble appeared to be the most successful regime of laser wake field acceleration in the last decade. The laser technology became mature enough to generate short and relativistically intense pulses required to reach the bubble regime naturally delivering quasi-monoenergetic bunches of relativistic electrons. The upcoming laser technology projects are promising short pulses with many times more energy than the existing ones. The natural question is how will the bubble regime scale with the available laser energy. We present here a parametric study of laser-plasma acceleration in the bubble regime using full three dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and compare numerical results with the analytical scalings from the relativistic laser-plasma similarity theory. Our simulations and the theory match almost perfectly for spot sizes above R = 2λ and laser amplitudes above a 0 = 4. We also studied the emission of synchrotron radiation by the accelerated electrons. Both classical and a QED model were applied. We found borders, at which theory and simulations stopped matching. With small spot radii (R < 2λ) we almost never observed the formation of a bubble structure or any form of mono-energetic acceleration. Low laser amplitudes lead to higher energies than predicted by the theory

  20. Proceedings of the 18. international linear accelerator conference. Vol. 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, C.; Vretenar, M.

    1996-01-01

    These proceedings cover the whole field of linear accelerators, from its original and continuing role in particle physics research to the wide range of applications found today in many other disciplines and technologies. The contributions were deliberately spread among the different conference sessions in order to maintain a broad interest. The topics covered include: the design, construction and control of linear accelerators and the associated technology; dedicated test facilities, injection, wakefields, bunching, halo, dynamics, radio-frequency (RF), electron and ion accelerators, (laser) ion sources; active alignment, beam steering and spot size; simulation, monitoring and diagnostics; a description of the performance and current status of many machines, including proposed ones such as CLIC, the NLC and TESLA; applications to medical diagnosis and radiotherapy; use in the treatment and sterilisation of materials (including food) and in the reprocessing of radioactive waste; use as potential suppliers of energy. (orig.)

  1. Proceedings of the 18. international linear accelerator conference. Vol. 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hill, C; Vretenar, M [eds.

    1996-11-15

    These proceedings cover the whole field of linear accelerators, from its original and continuing role in particle physics research to the wide range of applications found today in many other disciplines and technologies. The contributions were deliberately spread among the different conference sessions in order to maintain a broad interest. The topics covered include: the design, construction and control of linear accelerators and the associated technology; dedicated test facilities, injection, wakefields, bunching, halo, dynamics, radio-frequency (RF), electron and ion accelerators, (laser) ion sources; active alignment, beam steering and spot size; simulation, monitoring and diagnostics; a description of the performance and current status of many machines, including proposed ones such as CLIC, the NLC and TESLA; applications to medical diagnosis and radiotherapy; use in the treatment and sterilisation of materials (including food) and in the reprocessing of radioactive waste; use as potential suppliers of energy. (orig.).

  2. Proceedings of the 18. international linear accelerator conference. Vol. 2

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hill, C; Vretenar, M [eds.

    1996-11-15

    These proceedings cover the whole field of linear accelerators, from its original and continuing role in particle physics research to the wide range of applications found today in many other disciplines and technologies. The contributions were deliberately spread among the different conference sessions in order to maintain a broad interest. The topics covered include: the design, construction and control of linear accelerators and the associated technology; dedicated test facilities, injection, wakefields, bunching, halo, dynamics, radio-frequency (RF), electron and ion accelerators, (laser) ion sources; active alignment, beam steering and spot size; simulation, monitoring and diagnostics; a description of the performance and current status of many machines, including proposed ones such as CLIC, the NLC and TESLA; applications to medical diagnosis and radiotherapy; use in the treatment and sterilisation of materials (including food) and in the reprocessing of radioactive waste; use as potential suppliers of energy. (orig.).

  3. Application of Plasma Waveguides to High Energy Accelerators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Milchberg, Howard M

    2013-03-30

    will continue our development of advanced simulation tools by modifying the QuickPIC algorithm to allow for the simulation of plasma particle pick-up by the wake fields. We have also performed extensive simulations of plasma slow wave structures for efficient THz generation by guided laser beams or accelerated electron beams. We will pursue experimental studies of direct laser acceleration, and THz generation by two methods, ponderomotive-induced THz polarization, and THz radiation by laser accelerated electron beams. We also plan to study both conventional and corrugated plasma channels using our new 30 TW in our new lab facilities. We will investigate production of very long hydrogen plasma waveguides (5 cm). We will study guiding at increasing power levels through the onset of laser-induced cavitation (bubble regime) to assess the role played by the preformed channel. Experiments in direct acceleration will be performed, using laser plasma wakefields as the electron injector. Finally, we will use 2-colour ionization of gases as a high frequency THz source (<60 THz) in order for femtosecond measurements of low plasma densities in waveguides and beams.

  4. Generation and transport of laser accelerated ion beams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schmidt, Peter; Boine-Frankenheim, Oliver [Technische Univ. Darmstadt (Germany); GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt (Germany); Kornilov, Vladimir; Spaedtke, Peter [GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt (Germany); Collaboration: LIGHT-Collaboration

    2013-07-01

    Currently the LIGHT- Project (Laser Ion Generation, Handling and Transport) is performed at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung GmbH Darmstadt. Within this project, intense proton beams are generated by laser acceleration, using the TNSA mechanism. After the laser acceleration the protons are transported through the beam pipe by a pulsed power solenoid. To study the transport a VORPAL 3D simulation is compared with CST simulation. A criterion as a function of beam parameters was worked out, to rate the importance of space charge. Furthermore, an exemplary comparison of the solenoid with a magnetic quadrupole-triplet was carried out. In the further course of the LIGHT-Project, it is planned to generate ion beams with higher kinetic energies, using ultra-thin targets. The acceleration processes that can appear are: RPA (Radiation Pressure Acceleration) and BOA (Break-Out Afterburner). Therefore the transport of an ion distribution will be studied, as it emerges from a RPA acceleration.

  5. Solid hydrogen target for laser driven proton acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perin, J. P.; Garcia, S.; Chatain, D.; Margarone, D.

    2015-05-01

    The development of very high power lasers opens up new horizons in various fields, such as laser plasma acceleration in Physics and innovative approaches for proton therapy in Medicine. Laser driven proton acceleration is commonly based on the so-called Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) mechanisms: a high power laser is focused onto a solid target (thin metallic or plastic foil) and interact with matter at very high intensity, thus generating a plasma; as a consequence "hot" electrons are produced and move into the forward direction through the target. Protons are generated at the target rear side, electrons try to escape from the target and an ultra-strong quasi-electrostatic field (~1TV/m) is generated. Such a field can accelerate protons with a wide energy spectrum (1-200 MeV) in a few tens of micrometers. The proton beam characteristics depend on the laser parameters and on the target geometry and nature. This technique has been validated experimentally in several high power laser facilities by accelerating protons coming from hydrogenated contaminant (mainly water) at the rear of metallic target, however, several research groups are investigating the possibility to perform experiments by using "pure" hydrogen targets. In this context, the low temperature laboratory at CEA-Grenoble has developed a cryostat able to continuously produce a thin hydrogen ribbon (from 40 to 100 microns thick). A new extrusion concept, without any moving part has been carried out, using only the thermodynamic properties of the fluid. First results and perspectives are presented in this paper.

  6. Resistive wall wakefields of short bunches at cryogenic temperatures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Stupakov

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available We present calculations of the longitudinal wakefields at cryogenic temperatures for extremely short bunches, characteristic for modern x-ray free electron lasers. The calculations are based on the equations for the surface impedance in the regime of the anomalous skin effect in metals. This paper extends and complements an earlier analysis of B. Podobedov, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 12, 044401 (2009. into the region of very high frequencies associated with bunch lengths in the micron range. We study in detail the case of a rectangular bunch distribution for parameters of interest of LCLS-II with a superconducting undulator.

  7. Design of an X-band accelerating structure using a newly developed structural optimization procedure

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Huang, Xiaoxia [Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800 (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China); Fang, Wencheng; Gu, Qiang [Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800 (China); Zhao, Zhentang, E-mail: zhaozhentang@sinap.ac.cn [Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800 (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China)

    2017-05-11

    An X-band high gradient accelerating structure is a challenging technology for implementation in advanced electron linear accelerator facilities. The present work discusses the design of an X-band accelerating structure for dedicated application to a compact hard X-ray free electron laser facility at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, and numerous design optimizations are conducted with consideration for radio frequency (RF) breakdown, RF efficiency, short-range wakefields, and dipole/quadrupole field modes, to ensure good beam quality and a high accelerating gradient. The designed X-band accelerating structure is a constant gradient structure with a 4π/5 operating mode and input and output dual-feed couplers in a racetrack shape. The design process employs a newly developed effective optimization procedure for optimization of the X-band accelerating structure. In addition, the specific design of couplers providing high beam quality by eliminating dipole field components and reducing quadrupole field components is discussed in detail.

  8. UCLA accelerator research ampersand development. Progress report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1997-01-01

    This report discusses work on advanced accelerators and beam dynamics at ANL, BNL, SLAC, UCLA and Pulse Sciences Incorporated. Discussed in this report are the following concepts: Wakefield acceleration studies; plasma lens research; high gradient rf cavities and beam dynamics studies at the Brookhaven accelerator test facility; rf pulse compression development; and buncher systems for high gradient accelerator and relativistic klystron applications

  9. High-quality laser-accelerated ion beams for medical applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harman, Zoltan; Keitel, Christoph H. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Heidelberg (Germany); Salamin, Yousef I. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Heidelberg (Germany); American University of Sharjah (United Arab Emirates)

    2009-07-01

    Cancer radiation therapy requires accelerated ion beams of high energy sharpness and a narrow spatial profile. As shown recently, linearly and radially polarized, tightly focused and thus extremely strong laser beams should permit the direct acceleration of light atomic nuclei up to energies that may offer the potentiality for medical applications. Radially polarized beams have better emittance than their linearly polarized counterparts. We put forward the direct laser acceleration of ions, once the refocusing of ion beams by external fields is solved or radially polarized laser pulses of sufficient power can be generated.

  10. Application of the Reduction of Scale Range in a Lorentz Boosted Frame to the Numerical Simulation of Particle Acceleration Devices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vay, J.-L.; Fawley, W.M.; Geddes, C.G.R.; Cormier-Michel, E.; Grote, D.P.

    2009-01-01

    It has been shown (1) that it may be computationally advantageous to perform computer simulations in a boosted frame for a certain class of systems: particle beams interacting with electron clouds, free electron lasers, and laser-plasma accelerators. However, even if the computer model relies on a covariant set of equations, it was also pointed out that algorithmic difficulties related to discretization errors may have to be overcome in order to take full advantage of the potential speedup (2) . In this paper, we focus on the analysis of the complication of data input and output in a Lorentz boosted frame simulation, and describe the procedures that were implemented in the simulation code Warp(3). We present our most recent progress in the modeling of laser wakefield acceleration in a boosted frame, and describe briefly the potential benefits of calculating in a boosted frame for the modeling of coherent synchrotron radiation.

  11. A laser plasma beatwave accelerator experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ebrahim, N.A.

    1987-03-01

    An experiment to test the laser plasma beatware accelerator concept is outlined. A heuristic estimate of the relevant experimental parameters is obtained from fluid theory and considerations of wave-particle interactions. Acceleration of 10 MeV electrons to approximately 70 MeV over a plasma length of 3 cm appears to be feasible. This corresponds to an accelerating gradient of approximately 2.5 GeV/m

  12. Laser contrast and other key parameters enhancing the laser conversion efficiency in ion acceleration regime

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torrisi, Lorenzo

    2018-01-01

    Measurements of ion acceleration in plasma produced by fs lasers at intensity of the order of 1018 W/cm2 have been performed in different European laboratories. The forward emission in target-normal-sheath-acceleration (TNSA) regime indicated that the maximum energy is a function of the laser parameters, of the irradiation conditions and of the target properties.In particular the laser intensity and contrast play an important role to maximize the ion acceleration enhancing the conversion efficiency. Also the use of suitable prepulses, focal distances and polarized laser light has important roles. Finally the target composition, surface, geometry and multilayered structure, permit to enhance the electric field driving the forward ion acceleration.Experimental measurements will be reported and discussed.

  13. A laser driven pulsed X-ray backscatter technique for enhanced penetrative imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deas, R M; Wilson, L A; Rusby, D; Alejo, A; Allott, R; Black, P P; Black, S E; Borghesi, M; Brenner, C M; Bryant, J; Clarke, R J; Collier, J C; Edwards, B; Foster, P; Greenhalgh, J; Hernandez-Gomez, C; Kar, S; Lockley, D; Moss, R M; Najmudin, Z; Pattathil, R; Symes, D; Whittle, M D; Wood, J C; McKenna, P; Neely, D

    2015-01-01

    X-ray backscatter imaging can be used for a wide range of imaging applications, in particular for industrial inspection and portal security. Currently, the application of this imaging technique to the detection of landmines is limited due to the surrounding sand or soil strongly attenuating the 10s to 100s of keV X-rays required for backscatter imaging. Here, we introduce a new approach involving a 140 MeV short-pulse (< 100 fs) electron beam generated by laser wakefield acceleration to probe the sample, which produces Bremsstrahlung X-rays within the sample enabling greater depths to be imaged. A variety of detector and scintillator configurations are examined, with the best time response seen from an absorptive coated BaF2 scintillator with a bandpass filter to remove the slow scintillation emission components. An X-ray backscatter image of an array of different density and atomic number items is demonstrated. The use of a compact laser wakefield accelerator to generate the electron source, combined with the rapid development of more compact, efficient and higher repetition rate high power laser systems will make this system feasible for applications in the field. Content includes material subject to Dstl (c) Crown copyright (2014). Licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@ nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.

  14. Experimental observation of constructive superposition of wakefields generated by electron bunches in a dielectric-lined waveguide

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. V. Shchelkunov

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available We report results from an experiment that demonstrates the successful superposition of wakefields excited by 50 MeV bunches which travel ∼50  cm along the axis of a cylindrical waveguide which is lined with alumina. The bunches are prepared by splitting a single laser pulse prior to focusing it onto the cathode of an rf gun into two pulses and inserting an optical delay in the path of one of them. Wakefields from two short (5–6 psec 0.15–0.35 nC bunches are superimposed and the energy loss of each bunch is measured as the separation between the bunches is varied so as to encompass approximately one wakefield period (∼21   cm. A spectrum of ∼40   TM_{0m} eigenmodes is excited by the bunch. A substantial retarding wakefield (2.65   MV/m·nC for just the first bunch is developed because of the short bunch length and the narrow vacuum channel diameter (3 mm through which they move. The energy loss of the second bunch exhibits a narrow peak when the bunch spacing is varied by only 4 mm (13.5 psec. This experiment is compared with a related experiment reported by a group at the Argonne National Laboratory where the bunch spacing was not varied and a much weaker retarding wakefield (∼0.1   MV/m·nC for the first bunch comprising only about 10 eigenmodes was excited by a train of long (∼9   mm bunches.

  15. Effects of hyperbolic rotation in Minkowski space on the modeling of plasma accelerators in a Lorentz boosted frame

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vay, J.-L.; Geddes, C. G. R.; Cormier-Michel, E.; Grote, D. P.

    2011-01-01

    The effects of hyperbolic rotation in Minkowski space resulting from the use of Lorentz boosted frames of calculation on laser propagation in plasmas are analyzed. Selection of a boost frame at the laser group velocity is shown to alter the laser spectrum, allowing the use of higher boost velocities. The technique is applied to simulations of laser driven plasma wakefield accelerators, which promise much smaller machines and whose development requires detailed simulations that challenge or exceed current capabilities. Speedups approaching the theoretical optima are demonstrated, producing the first direct simulations of stages up to 1 TeV. This is made possible by a million times speedup thanks to a frame boost with a relativistic factor γ b as high as 1300, taking advantage of the rotation to mitigate an instability that limited previous work.

  16. Laser beam accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tajima, T.; Dawson, J.M.

    1981-01-01

    Parallel intense photon (laser, microwave, etc.) beams /omega/sub //0, k/sub 0/ and /omega/sub //1, k/sub 1/ shone on a plasma with frequency separation equal to the plasma frequency /omega/sub //p is capable of accelerating plasma electrons to high energies in large flux. The photon beat excites through the forward Raman scattering large amplitude plasmons whose phase velocity is equal to (/omega/ /sub 0/-/omega/sub //1)/(k/sub 0/-k/sub 1/), close to c in an underdense plasma. The multiple forward Raman instability produces smaller and smaller frequency and group velocity of photons; thus the photons slow down in the plasma by emitting accelerated electrons (inverse Cherenkov process). 6 refs

  17. Ion acceleration from relativistic laser nano-target interaction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jung, Daniel

    2012-01-01

    Laser-ion acceleration has been of particular interest over the last decade for fundamental as well as applied sciences. Remarkable progress has been made in realizing laser-driven accelerators that are cheap and very compact compared with conventional rf-accelerators. Proton and ion beams have been produced with particle energies of up to 50 MeV and several MeV/u, respectively, with outstanding properties in terms of transverse emittance and current. These beams typically exhibit an exponentially decaying energy distribution, but almost all advanced applications, such as oncology, proton imaging or fast ignition, require quasimonoenergetic beams with a low energy spread. The majority of the experiments investigated ion acceleration in the target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) regime with comparably thick targets in the μm range. In this thesis ion acceleration is investigated from nm-scaled targets, which are partially produced at the University of Munich with thickness as low as 3 nm. Experiments have been carried out at LANL's Trident high-power and high-contrast laser (80 J, 500 fs, λ=1054 nm), where ion acceleration with these nano-targets occurs during the relativistic transparency of the target, in the so-called Breakout afterburner (BOA) regime. With a novel high resolution and high dispersion Thomson parabola and ion wide angle spectrometer, thickness dependencies of the ions angular distribution, particle number, average and maximum energy have been measured. Carbon C 6+ energies reached 650 MeV and 1 GeV for unheated and heated targets, respectively, and proton energies peaked at 75 MeV and 120 MeV for diamond and CH 2 targets. Experimental data is presented, where the conversion efficiency into carbon C 6+ (protons) is investigated and found to have an up to 10fold (5fold) increase over the TNSA regime. With circularly polarized laser light, quasi-monoenergetic carbon ions have been generated from the same nm-scaled foil targets at Trident with an

  18. A New Damped and Tapered Accelerating Structure for CLIC

    CERN Document Server

    Raguin, J Y; Syratchev, I V; Wilson, Ian H; Wuensch, Walter

    2002-01-01

    The main performance limits when designing accelerating structures for the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) for an average accelerating gradient above 100 MV/m are electrical breakdown and material fatigue caused by pulsed surface heating. In addition, for stable beam operation, the structures should have low short-range transverse wakefields and much-reduced transverse and longitudinal long-range wakefields. Two damped and tapered accelerating structures have been designed. The first has an accelerating gradient of 112 MV/m with the surface electrical field limited to 300 MV/m and the maximum temperature increase limited to 100°C. The second, with an accelerating gradient of 150 MV/m, has a peak surface electrical field of 392 MV/m and a maximum temperature increase of 167°C. Innovations to the cell and damping waveguide geometry and to the tapering of the structures are presented, and possible further improvements are proposed.

  19. Pulsed radiobiology with laser-driven plasma accelerators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giulietti, Antonio; Grazia Andreassi, Maria; Greco, Carlo

    2011-05-01

    Recently, a high efficiency regime of acceleration in laser plasmas has been discovered, allowing table top equipment to deliver doses of interest for radiotherapy with electron bunches of suitable kinetic energy. In view of an R&D program aimed to the realization of an innovative class of accelerators for medical uses, a radiobiological validation is needed. At the present time, the biological effects of electron bunches from the laser-driven electron accelerator are largely unknown. In radiobiology and radiotherapy, it is known that the early spatial distribution of energy deposition following ionizing radiation interactions with DNA molecule is crucial for the prediction of damages at cellular or tissue levels and during the clinical responses to this irradiation. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the radio-biological effects obtained with electron bunches from a laser-driven electron accelerator compared with bunches coming from a IORT-dedicated medical Radio-frequency based linac's on human cells by the cytokinesis block micronucleus assay (CBMN). To this purpose a multidisciplinary team including radiotherapists, biologists, medical physicists, laser and plasma physicists is working at CNR Campus and University of Pisa. Dose on samples is delivered alternatively by the "laser-linac" operating at ILIL lab of Istituto Nazionale di Ottica and an RF-linac operating for IORT at Pisa S. Chiara Hospital. Experimental data are analyzed on the basis of suitable radiobiological models as well as with numerical simulation based on Monte Carlo codes. Possible collective effects are also considered in the case of ultrashort, ultradense bunches of ionizing radiation.

  20. Laser acceleration in vacuum with an open iris-loaded waveguide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xie, Ming

    1997-05-01

    An open iris-loaded waveguide structure is considered for laser acceleration of highly relativistic particle in vacuum. Complete characterization of all eigenmodes are given in analytical form for the structure. In particular the dominant radially polarized TM mode is evaluated in detail for laser acceleration. The entire parameter space is searched and it is found that below the laser damage threshold of the structure an acceleration gradient around 1 GV/m can be obtained over a phase slippage length of 10s of cm with TWs laser in the wavelength range from 1 to 10 μm

  1. Betatron radiation from a laser-plasma accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schnell, Michael

    2014-01-01

    The presented thesis investigates the processes which lead to the generation of highenergetic X-ray radiation, also known as ''betatron radiation'', by means of a relativistic laser-plasma interaction. The generated betatron radiation has been extensively characterized by measuring its radiated intensity, energy distribution, far-field beam profile, and source size. It was shown for the first time that betatron radiation can be used as a non-invasive diagnostic tool to retrieve very subtle information on the electron acceleration dynamics within the plasma wave. Furthermore, a compact polarimeter setup has been developed in a unique experiment in which the polarization state of the laser-plasma generated betatron radiation was measured in single-shot mode. This lead to a detailed study of the orientation of the electron trajectory within the plasma interaction. By controlling the injection of the electrons into the plasma wave it was demonstrated that one can tune the polarization state of the emitted X-rays. This result is very promising for further applications, particularly for feeding the electrons into an additional conventional accelerator or a permanent magnet based undulator for the production of intense X-ray beams. During this work, the experimental setup for accelerating electrons and generating high-energy X-ray beams was consistently improved: to enhance both its reliability and stability. Subsequently, the betatron radiation was used as a reliable diagnostic tool of the electron dynamics within the plasma. Parallel to the experimental work, 3-Dimensional Particle-In-Cell (3D-PlC) simulations were performed together with colleagues from the University of Duesseldorf. The simulations included the electron acceleration and the X-ray generation processes together with the recoil force acting on an accelerating electron caused by the emitted radiation during which one can also ascertain its polarization state. The simulations proved to be in good agreement

  2. Studies on mechanisms of the laser particle acceleration; Untersuchungen zu Mechanismen der Laser-Teilchenbeschleunigung

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aurand, Bastian

    2012-06-20

    Within the last decade, many developments towards higher energies and particle numbers paved the way of particle acceleration performed by high intensity laser systems. Up to now, the process of a field-induced acceleration process (Target-Normal-Sheath-Acceleration (TNSA)) is investigated the most. Acceleration occurs as a consequence of separation of charges on a surface potential. Here, the broad energy spectrum is a problem not yet overcome although many improvements were achieved. Calculations for intensities higher than 10{sup 20..21} W/cm{sup 2} give hint that Radiation-Pressure-Acceleration (RPA) may lead to a sharper, monoenergetic energy spectrum. Within the framework of this thesis, the investigation of the acceleration mechanism is studied experimentally in the intensity range of 10{sup 19} W/cm{sup 2}. Suitable targets were developed and applied for patent. A broad range of parameters was scanned by means of high repetition rates together with an adequate laser system to provide high statistics of several thousands of shots, and the dependence of target material, intensity, laser polarisation and pre plasma-conditions was verified. Comparisons with 2-d numeric simulations lead to a model of the acceleration process which was analyzed by several diagnostic methods, giving clear evidence for a new, not field-induced acceleration process. In addition, a system for a continuous variation of the polarization based on reflective optics was developed in order to overcome the disadvantages of retardation plates, and their practicability of high laser energies can be achieved.

  3. An Inverse Free-Electron-Laser accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fisher, A.S.; Gallardo, J.C.; van Steenbergen, A.; Ulc, S.; Woodle, M.; Sandweiss, J.; Fang, Jyan-Min

    1993-01-01

    Recent work at BNL on electron acceleration using the Inverse Free-Electron Laser (IFEL) has considered a low-energy, high-gradient, multi-stage linear accelerator. Experiments are planned at BNL's Accelerator Test Facility using its 50-MeV linac and 100-GW CO 2 laser. We have built and tested a fast-excitation wiggler magnet with constant field, tapered period, and overall length of 47 cm. Vanadium-Permendur ferromagnetic laminations are stacked in alternation with copper, eddy-current-induced, field reflectors to achieve a 1.4-T peak field with a 4-mm gap and a typical period of 3 cm. The laser beam will pass through the wiggler in a low-loss, dielectric-coated stainless-steel, rectangular waveguide. The attenuation and transverse mode has been measured in waveguide sections of various lengths, with and without the dielectric. Results of 1-D and 3-D IFEL simulations, including wiggler errors, will be presented for several cases: the initial, single-module experiment with ΔE = 39 MeV, a four-module design giving ΔE = 100 MeV in a total length of 2 m, and an eight-module IFEL with ΔE = 210 MeV

  4. Dielectric laser acceleration of non-relativistic electrons at a photonic structure

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Breuer, John

    2013-08-29

    This thesis reports on the observation of dielectric laser acceleration of non-relativistic electrons via the inverse Smith-Purcell effect in the optical regime. Evanescent modes in the vicinity of a periodic grating structure can travel at the same velocity as the electrons along the grating surface. A longitudinal electric field component is used to continuously impart momentum onto the electrons. This is only possible in the near-field of a suitable photonic structure, which means that the electron beam has to pass the structure within about one wavelength. In our experiment we exploit the third spatial harmonic of a single fused silica grating excited by laser pulses derived from a Titanium:sapphire oscillator and accelerate non-relativistic 28 keV electrons. We measure a maximum energy gain of 280 eV, corresponding to an acceleration gradient of 25 MeV/m, already comparable with state-of-the-art radio-frequency linear accelerators. To experience this acceleration gradient the electrons approach the grating closer than 100 nm. We present the theory behind grating-based particle acceleration and discuss simulation results of dielectric laser acceleration in the near-field of photonic grating structures, which is excited by near-infrared laser light. Our measurements show excellent agreement with our simulation results and therefore confirm the direct acceleration with the light field. We further discuss the acceleration inside double grating structures, dephasing effects of non-relativistic electrons as well as the space charge effect, which can limit the attainable peak currents of these novel accelerator structures. The photonic structures described in this work can be readily concatenated and therefore represent a scalable realization of dielectric laser acceleration. Furthermore, our structures are directly compatible with the microstructures used for the acceleration of relativistic electrons demonstrated in parallel to this work by our collaborators in

  5. Electron self-injection in the donut bubble wakefield

    Science.gov (United States)

    Firouzjaei, Ali Shekari; Shokri, Babak

    2018-05-01

    We investigate electron self-injection in a donut bubble wakefield driven by a Laguerre-Gauss laser pulse. The present work discusses the electron capture by modeling the analytical donut bubble field. We discuss the self-injection of the electrons from plasma for various initial conditions and then compare the results. We show that the donut bubble can trap plasma electrons forming a hollow beam. We present the phase spaces and longitudinal momentum evolution for the trapped electrons in the bubble and discuss their characteristic behaviors and stability. It will be shown that the electrons self-injected in the front are ideal for applications in which a good stability and low energy spread are essential.

  6. High-energy inverse free-electron laser accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Courant, E.D.; Pellegrini, C.; Zakowicz, W.

    1985-01-01

    We study the inverse free electron laser (IFEL) accelerator and show that it can accelerate electrons to the few hundred GeV region with average acceleration rates of the order of 200 meV/m. Several possible accelerating structures are analyzed, and the effect of synchrotron radiation losses is studied. The longitudinal phase stability of accelerated particles is also analyzed. A Hamiltonian description, which takes into account the dissipative features of the IFEL accelerator, is introduced to study perturbations from the resonant acceleration. Adiabatic invariants are obtained and used to estimate the change of the electron phase space density during the acceleration process

  7. Laser-controlled collective ion accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Shea, P.G.; Destler, W.W.; Rodgers, J.; Segalov, Z.

    1986-01-01

    We report first results from a new collective accelerator experiment in which a laser-controlled channel of ionization is used to control the propagation of the potential well at the front of an intense relativistic electron beam injected at currents above the space-charge limit. The controlled acceleration of protons at the rate of 40 MeV/m over a distance of 45 cm is reported, in good agreement with experimental design values

  8. Hosing Instability of the Drive Electron Beam in the E157 Plasma-Wakefield Acceleration Experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blue, Brent Edward

    2005-01-01

    In the plasma-wakefield experiment at SLAC, known as E157, an ultra-relativistic electron beam is used to both excite and witness a plasma wave for advanced accelerator applications. If the beam is tilted, then it will undergo transverse oscillations inside of the plasma. These oscillations can grow exponentially via an instability know as the electron hose instability. The linear theory of electron-hose instability in a uniform ion column predicts that for the parameters of the E157 experiment (beam charge, bunch length, and plasma density) a growth of the centroid offset should occur. Analysis of the E157 data has provided four critical results. The first was that the incoming beam did have a tilt. The tilt was much smaller than the radius and was measured to be 5.3 (micro)m/(delta) z at the entrance of the plasma (IP1.) The second was the beam centroid oscillates in the ion channel at half the frequency of the beam radius (betatron beam oscillations), and these oscillations can be predicted by the envelope equation. Third, up to the maximum operating plasma density of E157 (∼2 x 10 14 cm -3 ), no growth of the centroid offset was measured. Finally, time-resolved data of the beam shows that up to this density, no significant growth of the tail of the beam (up to 8ps from the centroid) occurred even though the beam had an initial tilt

  9. Hosing Instability of the Drive Electron Beam in the E157 Plasma-Wakefield Acceleration Experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Blue, Brent Edward; /SLAC /UCLA

    2005-10-10

    In the plasma-wakefield experiment at SLAC, known as E157, an ultra-relativistic electron beam is used to both excite and witness a plasma wave for advanced accelerator applications. If the beam is tilted, then it will undergo transverse oscillations inside of the plasma. These oscillations can grow exponentially via an instability know as the electron hose instability. The linear theory of electron-hose instability in a uniform ion column predicts that for the parameters of the E157 experiment (beam charge, bunch length, and plasma density) a growth of the centroid offset should occur. Analysis of the E157 data has provided four critical results. The first was that the incoming beam did have a tilt. The tilt was much smaller than the radius and was measured to be 5.3 {micro}m/{delta}{sub z} at the entrance of the plasma (IP1.) The second was the beam centroid oscillates in the ion channel at half the frequency of the beam radius (betatron beam oscillations), and these oscillations can be predicted by the envelope equation. Third, up to the maximum operating plasma density of E157 ({approx}2 x 10{sup 14} cm{sup -3}), no growth of the centroid offset was measured. Finally, time-resolved data of the beam shows that up to this density, no significant growth of the tail of the beam (up to 8ps from the centroid) occurred even though the beam had an initial tilt.

  10. Proceedings of the 18. international linear accelerator conference (Linac96). V.1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, C.; Vretenar, M.

    1996-01-01

    These Proceedings cover the whole field of linear accelerators, from its original and continuing role in particle physics research to the wide range of applications found today in many other disciplines and technologies. The contributions were deliberately spread among the different conference sessions in order to maintain a broad interest. The topics covered include: the design, construction and control of linear accelerators and the associated technology; dedicated test facilities, injection, wakefields, bunching, halo, dynamics, radio-frequency (RF), electron and ion accelerators, (laser) ion sources; active alignment, beam steering and spot size; simulation, monitoring and diagnostics; a description of the performance and current status of many machines, including proposed ones such as CLIC, the NLC and TESLA; applications to medical diagnosis and radiotherapy; use in the treatment and sterilisation of materials (including food) and in the reprocessing of radioactive waste; use as potential suppliers of energy. (author)

  11. Prospects of the surfatron laser plasma accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Katsouleas, T.; Joshi, C.; Mori, W.; Dawson, J.M.

    1983-01-01

    The surfatron concept is proposed as a possible solution to the problem of staging in the laser-plasma beat wave accelerator scheme. Prospects of a 100 GeV particle accelerator based on the surfatron concept are explored. Finite angle optical mixing appears to be a promising solution for drastically reducing the width of the plane wave, thereby, making the required laser power and the device size realizable for a proof-of-principle experiment. Our conclusions are based mainly on analytical theory and one-dimensional particle simulations

  12. Alignment of Ion Accelerator for Surface Analysis using Theodolite and Laser Tracker

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ahn, Tae Sung; Seo, Dong Hyuk; Kim, Dae Il; Kim, Han Sung; Kwon, Hyeok Jung; Cho, Yong Sub [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-05-15

    The method of ion accelerator alignment is used two ways which are a theodolite and laser tracker. For the alignment and maintenance of the proton linear accelerator, the laser tracker is typically used at KOMAC. While the device for alignment by using laser tracker is not installed in all ion accelerator components, it was used in parallel in two methods. In this paper, alignment methods are introduced and the result and comparison of each alignment method are presented. The ion accelerator for surface analysis has aligned using theodolite and laser tracker. The two ways for alignment have advantage as well as weakness. But alignment using laser tracker is stronger than using theodolite. Because it is based on alignment and position data and it is more detailed. Also since the beam distribution is smaller than accelerator component that is direction of beam progress, main component (ex. Magnet, Chamber, Pelletron tank, etc.) alignment using laser tracker is enough to align the ion accelerator.

  13. 2.5 TW, two-cycle IR laser pulses via frequency domain optical parametric amplification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gruson, V; Ernotte, G; Lassonde, P; Laramée, A; Bionta, M R; Chaker, M; Di Mauro, L; Corkum, P B; Ibrahim, H; Schmidt, B E; Legaré, F

    2017-10-30

    Broadband optical parametric amplification in the IR region has reached a new milestone through the use of a non-collinear Frequency domain Optical Parametric Amplification system. We report a laser source delivering 11.6 fs pulses with 30 mJ of energy at a central wavelength of 1.8 μm at 10 Hz repetition rate corresponding to a peak power of 2.5 TW. The peak power scaling is accompanied by a pulse shortening of about 20% upon amplification due to the spectral reshaping with higher gain in the spectral wings. This source paves the way for high flux soft X-ray pulses and IR-driven laser wakefield acceleration.

  14. Electron bunch length measurement with a wakefield radiation decelerator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weiwei Li

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a novel method to measure the electron bunch length with a dielectric wakefield radiation (DWR decelerator which is composed of two dielectric-lined waveguides (DLWs and an electron spectrometer. When an electron beam passes through a DLW, the DWR is excited which leads to an energy loss of the electron beam. The energy loss is found to be largely dependent on the electron bunch length and can be easily measured by an electron spectrometer which is essential for a normal accelerator facility. Our study shows that this method has a high resolution and a great simplicity.

  15. Generation of monoenergetic ion beams with a laser accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.

    2009-01-01

    A method for the generation of monoenergetic proton and ion beams from a laser-based particle accelerator is presented. This method utilizes the unique space-charge effects occurring during relativistic laser-plasma interactions on solid targets in combination with a dot-like particle source. Due to this unique interaction geometry, MeV proton beams with an intrinsically narrow energy spectrum were obtained, for the first time, from a micrometer-scale laser accelerator. Over the past three years, the acceleration scheme has been consistently improved to enhance both the maximum particle energy and the reliability of the setup. The achieved degree of reliability allowed to derive the first scaling laws specifically for monoenergetic proton beams. Furthermore, the acceleration scheme was expanded on other target materials, enabling the generation of monoenergetic carbon beams. The experimental work was strongly supported by the parallel development of a complex theoretical model, which fully accounts for the observations and is in excellent agreement with numerical simulations. The presented results have an extraordinarily broad scope way beyond the current thesis: The availability of monoenergetic ion beams from a compact laser-plasma beam source - in conjunction with the unique properties of laser-produced particle beams - addresses a number of outstanding applications in fundamental research, material science and medical physics, and will help to shape a new generation of accelerators. (orig.)

  16. Generation of monoenergetic ion beams with a laser accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.

    2009-01-29

    A method for the generation of monoenergetic proton and ion beams from a laser-based particle accelerator is presented. This method utilizes the unique space-charge effects occurring during relativistic laser-plasma interactions on solid targets in combination with a dot-like particle source. Due to this unique interaction geometry, MeV proton beams with an intrinsically narrow energy spectrum were obtained, for the first time, from a micrometer-scale laser accelerator. Over the past three years, the acceleration scheme has been consistently improved to enhance both the maximum particle energy and the reliability of the setup. The achieved degree of reliability allowed to derive the first scaling laws specifically for monoenergetic proton beams. Furthermore, the acceleration scheme was expanded on other target materials, enabling the generation of monoenergetic carbon beams. The experimental work was strongly supported by the parallel development of a complex theoretical model, which fully accounts for the observations and is in excellent agreement with numerical simulations. The presented results have an extraordinarily broad scope way beyond the current thesis: The availability of monoenergetic ion beams from a compact laser-plasma beam source - in conjunction with the unique properties of laser-produced particle beams - addresses a number of outstanding applications in fundamental research, material science and medical physics, and will help to shape a new generation of accelerators. (orig.)

  17. Katherine E. Weimer Award: X-ray light sources from laser-plasma and laser-electron interaction: development and applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albert, Felicie

    2017-10-01

    Bright sources of x-rays, such as synchrotrons and x-ray free electron lasers (XFEL) are transformational tools for many fields of science. They are used for biology, material science, medicine, or industry. Such sources rely on conventional particle accelerators, where electrons are accelerated to gigaelectronvolts (GeV) energies. The accelerated particles are wiggled in magnetic structures to emit x-ray radiation that is commonly used for molecular crystallography, fluorescence studies, chemical analysis, medical imaging, and many other applications. One of the drawbacks of these machines is their size and cost, because electric field gradients are limited to about 100 V/M in conventional accelerators. Particle acceleration in laser-driven plasmas is an alternative to generate x-rays via betatron emission, Compton scattering, or bremsstrahlung. A plasma can sustain electrical fields many orders of magnitude higher than that in conventional radiofrequency accelerator structures. When short, intense laser pulses are focused into a gas, it produces electron plasma waves in which electrons can be trapped and accelerated to GeV energies. X-ray sources, driven by electrons from laser-wakefield acceleration, have unique properties that are analogous to synchrotron radiation, with a 1000-fold shorter pulse. An important use of x-rays from laser plasma accelerators is in High Energy Density (HED) science, which requires laser and XFEL facilities to create in the laboratory extreme conditions of temperatures and pressures that are usually found in the interiors of stars and planets. To diagnose such extreme states of matter, the development of efficient, versatile and fast (sub-picosecond scale) x-ray probes has become essential. In these experiments, x-ray photons can pass through dense material, and absorption of the x-rays can be directly measured, via spectroscopy or imaging, to inform scientists about the temperature and density of the targets being studied. Performed

  18. Modeling two-stage bunch compression with wakefields: Macroscopic properties and microbunching instability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. A. Bosch

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available In a two-stage compression and acceleration system, where each stage compresses a chirped bunch in a magnetic chicane, wakefields affect high-current bunches. The longitudinal wakes affect the macroscopic energy and current profiles of the compressed bunch and cause microbunching at short wavelengths. For macroscopic wavelengths, impedance formulas and tracking simulations show that the wakefields can be dominated by the resistive impedance of coherent edge radiation. For this case, we calculate the minimum initial bunch length that can be compressed without producing an upright tail in phase space and associated current spike. Formulas are also obtained for the jitter in the bunch arrival time downstream of the compressors that results from the bunch-to-bunch variation of current, energy, and chirp. Microbunching may occur at short wavelengths where the longitudinal space-charge wakes dominate or at longer wavelengths dominated by edge radiation. We model this range of wavelengths with frequency-dependent impedance before and after each stage of compression. The growth of current and energy modulations is described by analytic gain formulas that agree with simulations.

  19. Optical design for increased interaction length in a high gradient dielectric laser accelerator

    OpenAIRE

    Cesar, D.; Maxson, J.; Musumeci, P.; Shen, X.; England, R. J.; Wootton, K. P.

    2018-01-01

    We present a methodology for designing and measuring pulse front tilt in an ultrafast laser for use in dielectric laser acceleration. Previous research into dielectric laser accelerating modules has focused on measuring high accelerating gradients in novel structures, but has done so only for short electron-laser coupling lengths. Here we demonstrate an optical design to extend the laser-electron interaction to 1mm.

  20. Random Walk Model for Cell-To-Cell Misalignments in Accelerator Structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stupakov, Gennady

    2000-01-01

    Due to manufacturing and construction errors, cells in accelerator structures can be misaligned relative to each other. As a consequence, the beam generates a transverse wakefield even when it passes through the structure on axis. The most important effect is the long-range transverse wakefield that deflects the bunches and causes growth of the bunch train projected emittance. In this paper, the effect of the cell-to-cell misalignments is evaluated using a random walk model that assumes that each cell is shifted by a random step relative to the previous one. The model is compared with measurements of a few accelerator structures

  1. Single bunch beam loading on the SLAC three-kilometer accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koontz, R.F.; Loew, G.A.; Miller, R.H.; Wilson, P.B.

    1977-03-01

    Since the report on single bunch beam loading experiments at SLAC at the 1975 Particle Accelerator Conference, it has been possible to obtain a much better understanding and agreement of theoretical and experimental results related to this problem. These improvements were made possible by two developments: the generation of a ''wake-field'' function for the SLAC 3-km slow-wave structure and the use of this function to calculate single bunch energy spectra. The wake-field function which gives the time decay of the fields generated by the passage of a delta-function beam was derived by summing all the TM cylindrically symmetrical modes of an equivalent accelerator cavity. By multiplying this wake-field function by a measured bunch density function and integrating along the bunch, it is possible to calculate the energy of each electron in the bunch. This in turn enables one to predict the energy spectrum for any given phase angle of the bunch with respect to the crest of the rf accelerating wave. Agreement between these calculations and experimental measurements is very good. These results are presented, and the possible sources of some of the remaining discrepancies are discussed

  2. Single bunch beam loading on the SLAC three-kilometer accelerator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koontz, R.F.; Loew, G.A.; Miller, R.H.; Wilson, P.B.

    1977-01-01

    Since the report on single bunch beam loading experiments at SLAC at the 1975 Particle Accelerator Conference, it has been possible to obtain a much better understanding and agreement of theoretical and experimental results related to this problem. These improvements have been made possible by two developments: the generation of a ''wake-field'' function for the SLAC 3-km slow-wave structure and the use of this function to calculate single bunch energy spectra. The wake-field function which gives the time decay of the fields generated by the passage of a delta-function beam was derived by summing all the TM cylindrically symmetrical modes of an equivalent accelerator cavity. By multiplying this wake-field function by a measured bunch density function and integrating along the bunch, it is possible to calculate the energy of each electron in the bunch. This in turn enables one to predict the energy spectrum for any given phase angle of the bunch with respect to the crest of the rf accelerating wave. Agreement between these calculations and experimental measurements is very good. These results are presented and the possible sources of some of the remaining discrepancies are discussed

  3. Photonic Crystal Laser-Driven Accelerator Structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cowan, B

    2004-01-01

    The authors discuss simulated photonic crystal structure designs for laser-driven particle acceleration. They focus on three-dimensional planar structures based on the so-called ''woodpile'' lattice, demonstrating guiding of a speed-of-light accelerating mode by a defect in the photonic crystal lattice. They introduce a candidate geometry and discuss the properties of the accelerating mode. They also discuss the linear beam dynamics in the structure present a novelmethod for focusing the beam. In addition they describe ongoing investigations of photonic crystal fiber-based structures

  4. Transport and acceleration of low-emittance electron beams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henke, H.

    1989-01-01

    Linear accelerators for colliders and for free-electron lasers require beams with both high brightness and low emittance. Their transport and acceleration is limited by single-particle effects originating from injection jitter, from the unavoidable position jitter of components, and from chromaticity. Collective phenomena, essentially due to wake fields acting within the bunch, are most severe in the case of high-frequency structures, i.e. a small aperture. Whilst, in the past, the transverse wake-field effects were believed to be most serious, we know that they can even be beneficial when inducing a corresponding spread in betatron oscillation either by an energy spread along the bunch or by an RF focusing system acting on the bunch scale. This paper evaluates the different effects by simple analytical means after making use of the smooth focusing approximation and the two-particle model. Numerical simulation results are used for verification. 14 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs

  5. Data acquisition, control, and analysis for the Argonne Advanced Accelerator Test Facility (AATF)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schoessow, P.

    1989-01-01

    The AATF has been used to study wakefield acceleration and focusing in plasmas and rf structures. A PC-based system is described which incorporates the functions of beamline control and acquisition, storage, and preliminary analysis of video images from luminescent screen beam diagnostics. General features of the offline analysis of wakefield data are also discussed. 4 refs., 3 figs

  6. The LILIA (laser induced light ions acceleration) experiment at LNF

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Agosteo, S.; Anania, M.P.; Caresana, M.; Cirrone, G.A.P.; De Martinis, C.; Delle Side, D.; Fazzi, A.; Gatti, G.; Giove, D.; Giulietti, D.; Gizzi, L.A.; Labate, L.; Londrillo, P.; Maggiore, M.; Nassisi, V.; Sinigardi, S.; Tramontana, A.; Schillaci, F.; Scuderi, V.; Turchetti, G.

    2014-01-01

    Laser-matter interaction at relativistic intensities opens up new research fields in the particle acceleration and related secondary sources, with immediate applications in medical diagnostics, biophysics, material science, inertial confinement fusion, up to laboratory astrophysics. In particular laser-driven ion acceleration is very promising for hadron therapy once the ion energy will attain a few hundred MeV. The limited value of the energy up to now obtained for the accelerated ions is the drawback of such innovative technique to the real applications. LILIA (laser induced light ions acceleration) is an experiment now running at LNF (Frascati) with the goal of producing a real proton beam able to be driven for significant distances (50–75 cm) away from the interaction point and which will act as a source for further accelerating structure. In this paper the description of the experimental setup, the preliminary results of solid target irradiation and start to end simulation for a post-accelerated beam up to 60 MeV are given

  7. The LILIA (laser induced light ions acceleration) experiment at LNF

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Agosteo, S. [Energy Department, Polytechnic of Milan and INFN, Milan (Italy); Anania, M.P. [INFN LNF Frascati, Frascati (Italy); Caresana, M. [Energy Department, Polytechnic of Milan and INFN, Milan (Italy); Cirrone, G.A.P. [INFN LNS Catania, Catania (Italy); De Martinis, C. [Physics Department, University of Milan and INFN, Milan (Italy); Delle Side, D. [LEAS, University of Salento and INFN, Lecce (Italy); Fazzi, A. [Energy Department, Polytechnic of Milan and INFN, Milan (Italy); Gatti, G. [INFN LNF Frascati, Frascati (Italy); Giove, D. [Physics Department, University of Milan and INFN, Milan (Italy); Giulietti, D. [Physics Department, University of Pisa and INFN, Pisa (Italy); Gizzi, L.A.; Labate, L. [INO-CNR and INFN, Pisa (Italy); Londrillo, P. [Physics Department, University of Bologna and INFN, Bologna (Italy); Maggiore, M. [INFN LNL, Legnaro (Italy); Nassisi, V., E-mail: vincenzo.nassisi@le.infn.it [LEAS, University of Salento and INFN, Lecce (Italy); Sinigardi, S. [Physics Department, University of Bologna and INFN, Bologna (Italy); Tramontana, A.; Schillaci, F. [INFN LNS Catania, Catania (Italy); Scuderi, V. [INFN LNS Catania, Catania (Italy); Institute of Physics of the ASCR, Prague (Czech Republic); Turchetti, G. [Physics Department, University of Bologna and INFN, Bologna (Italy); and others

    2014-07-15

    Laser-matter interaction at relativistic intensities opens up new research fields in the particle acceleration and related secondary sources, with immediate applications in medical diagnostics, biophysics, material science, inertial confinement fusion, up to laboratory astrophysics. In particular laser-driven ion acceleration is very promising for hadron therapy once the ion energy will attain a few hundred MeV. The limited value of the energy up to now obtained for the accelerated ions is the drawback of such innovative technique to the real applications. LILIA (laser induced light ions acceleration) is an experiment now running at LNF (Frascati) with the goal of producing a real proton beam able to be driven for significant distances (50–75 cm) away from the interaction point and which will act as a source for further accelerating structure. In this paper the description of the experimental setup, the preliminary results of solid target irradiation and start to end simulation for a post-accelerated beam up to 60 MeV are given.

  8. A new collective-field acceleration mechanism using a powerful laser

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Willis, W.J.

    1975-01-01

    Performance estimates for a linear accelerator for positive ions are presented. Focusing and acceleration is performed by means of a local, strong modulation of a relativistic electron beam using the electromagnetic field of a laser. For high-power laser beams of 1010 watts per square wavelength, the accelerating field strength can be several GV/m, assuming free electrons. Various interaction mechanisms of the laser beam with the electron beam are briefly discussed, notably inverse bremsstrahlung and interaction with the self-magnetic field of the electron beam. Finally, coherent effects and the injection of ions are dealt with. (author)

  9. ELIMAIA: A Laser-Driven Ion Accelerator for Multidisciplinary Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniele Margarone

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The main direction proposed by the community of experts in the field of laser-driven ion acceleration is to improve particle beam features (maximum energy, charge, emittance, divergence, monochromaticity, shot-to-shot stability in order to demonstrate reliable and compact approaches to be used for multidisciplinary applications, thus, in principle, reducing the overall cost of a laser-based facility compared to a conventional accelerator one and, at the same time, demonstrating innovative and more effective sample irradiation geometries. The mission of the laser-driven ion target area at ELI-Beamlines (Extreme Light Infrastructure in Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic, called ELI Multidisciplinary Applications of laser-Ion Acceleration (ELIMAIA , is to provide stable, fully characterized and tuneable beams of particles accelerated by Petawatt-class lasers and to offer them to the user community for multidisciplinary applications. The ELIMAIA beamline has been designed and developed at the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic (IoP-ASCR in Prague and at the National Laboratories of Southern Italy of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (LNS-INFN in Catania (Italy. An international scientific network particularly interested in future applications of laser driven ions for hadrontherapy, ELI MEDical applications (ELIMED, has been established around the implementation of the ELIMAIA experimental system. The basic technology used for ELIMAIA research and development, along with envisioned parameters of such user beamline will be described and discussed.

  10. Transformer ratio enhancement experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gai, W.; Power, J. G.; Kanareykin, A.; Neasheva, E.; Altmark, A.

    2004-01-01

    Recently, a multibunch scheme for efficient acceleration based on dielectric wakefield accelerator technology was outlined in J.G. Power, W. Gai, A. Kanareykin, X. Sun. PAC 2001 Proceedings, pp. 114-116, 2002. In this paper we present an experimental program for the design, development and demonstration of an Enhanced Transformer Ratio Dielectric Wakefield Accelerator (ETR-DWA). The principal goal is to increase the transformer ratio R, the parameter that characterizes the energy transfer efficiency from the accelerating structure to the accelerated electron beam. We present here an experimental design of a 13.625 GHz dielectric loaded accelerating structure, a laser multisplitter producing a ramped bunch train, and simulations of the bunch train parameters required. Experimental results of the accelerating structure bench testing and ramped pulsed train generation with the laser multisplitter are shown as well. Using beam dynamic simulations, we also obtain the focusing FODO lattice parameters

  11. Generation of femtosecond electron single pulse using laser photocathode RF gun

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Uesaka, M.; Kinoshita, K.; Watanabe, T. [Nuclear Engineering Research Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Tokai, Ibaraki (JP)] [and others

    1998-11-01

    A new laser photocathode RF electron gun was installed in the second linac of the S-band twin linac system of Nuclear Engineering Research Laboratory(NERL) of University of Tokyo in August in 1997. Since then, the behavior of the new gun has been tested and the characteristic parameters have been evaluated. At the exit of the gun, the energy is 4.7 MeV, the charge per bunch 1 nC, the pulse width is 10 ps(FWHM), respectively, for 6 MW RF power supply from a klystron. The electron bunch is accelerated up to 17 MeV. The horizontal normalized emittance is 1 {pi} mm.mrad. Then, the bunch is compressed to be 440 fs(FWHM) with 0.35 nC by the chicane-type magnetic pulse compressor. The gun is planned to be used for femtosecond X-ray generation via the head-on Thomson scattering and laser wakefield acceleration in 1998. (author)

  12. Summary Report of Working Group: Laser-Plasma Acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Esarey, Eric; Schroeder, Carl B.; Tochitsky, Sergei; Milchberg, Howard M.

    2004-01-01

    A summary is given on the work presented and discussed in the Laser-Plasma Acceleration Working Group at the 2004 Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop, including the Plasma Acceleration Subgroup (Group-Leader: Eric Esarey; Co-Group-Leader: Sergei Tochitsky) and the Plasma Guiding Subgroup (Group-Leader: Howard Milchberg; Co-Group-Leader: Carl Schroeder)

  13. Enhanced efficiency of plasma acceleration in the laser-induced cavity pressure acceleration scheme

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Badziak, J.; Rosinski, M.; Jabłonski, S.; Pisarczyk, T.; Chodukowski, T.; Parys, P.; Raczka, P.; Krouský, Eduard; Ullschmied, Jiří; Liska, R.; Kucharik, M.

    2015-01-01

    Roč. 57, č. 1 (2015), 014007 ISSN 0741-3335 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LC528; GA MŠk LM2010014 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 ; RVO:61389021 Keywords : laser ion acceleration * laser plasma * fast ignition * ion diagnostics * LICPA Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics; BH - Optics, Masers, Lasers (UFP-V) Impact factor: 2.404, year: 2015

  14. A possible experiment at LEUTL to characterize surface roughness Wakefield effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Biedron, S.G.; Dattoli, G.; Fawley, W.M.; Freund, H.P.; Huang, Zhirong; Lewellen, J.W.; Milton, S.V.; Nuhn, H.D.

    2001-01-01

    Wakefield effects due to internal vacuum chamber roughness may increase the electron beam energy spread and so have become an immediate concern for future x-ray free-electron laser (FEL) project developments such as the SLAC Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the DESY TESLA x-ray FEL. We describe a possible experiment to characterize the effects of surface roughness on an FEL driven by self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) operation. Although the specific system described is not completely identical to the above-proposed projects, much useful scaling information could be obtained and applied to shorter wavelength systems

  15. Bubble shape and electromagnetic field in the nonlinear regime for laser wakefield acceleration

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Li, X.F.; Yu, Q.; Gu, Yanjun; Huang, S.; Kong, Q.; Kawata, S.

    2015-01-01

    Roč. 22, č. 8 (2015), "083112-1"-"083112-6" ISSN 1070-664X R&D Projects: GA MŠk ED1.1.00/02.0061; GA MŠk EE2.3.20.0279 Grant - others:ELI Beamlines(XE) CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0061; LaserZdroj (OP VK 3)(XE) CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0279 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : electron-beams * plasma- waves * excitation * driven Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics Impact factor: 2.207, year: 2015

  16. Investigation of advanced electron bunch generation and diagnostics in the BOND laboratory at DESY

    OpenAIRE

    Kononenko, Olena; Bohlen, Simon; Gruse, Jan-Niclas; Karstensen, Sven; Libov, Vladyslav; Ludwig, Kai; Martinez de la Ossa, Alberto; Marutzky, Frank; Niroula, Avinash; Osterhoff, Jens; Quast, Martin; Schaper, Lucas; Dale, John; Schwinkendorf, Jan-Patrick; Streeter, Matthew

    2016-01-01

    Laser driven plasma wakefield accelerators have been explored as a potential compact, reproducible source of relativistic electron bunches, utilising an electric field of many GV/m. Control over injection of electrons into the wakefield is of crucial importance in producing stable, mono-energetic electron bunches. Density tailoring of the target, to control the acceleration process, can also be used to improve the quality of the bunch. By using gas jets to provide tailored targets it is poss...

  17. Effect of polarization and focusing on laser pulse driven auto-resonant particle acceleration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sagar, Vikram; Sengupta, Sudip; Kaw, Predhiman

    2014-01-01

    The effect of laser polarization and focusing is theoretically studied on the final energy gain of a particle in the Auto-resonant acceleration scheme using a finite duration laser pulse with Gaussian shaped temporal envelope. The exact expressions for dynamical variables viz. position, momentum, and energy are obtained by analytically solving the relativistic equation of motion describing particle dynamics in the combined field of an elliptically polarized finite duration pulse and homogeneous static axial magnetic field. From the solutions, it is shown that for a given set of laser parameters viz. intensity and pulse length along with static magnetic field, the energy gain by a positively charged particle is maximum for a right circularly polarized laser pulse. Further, a new scheme is proposed for particle acceleration by subjecting it to the combined field of a focused finite duration laser pulse and static axial magnetic field. In this scheme, the particle is initially accelerated by the focused laser field, which drives the non-resonant particle to second stage of acceleration by cyclotron Auto-resonance. The new scheme is found to be efficient over two individual schemes, i.e., auto-resonant acceleration and direct acceleration by focused laser field, as significant particle acceleration can be achieved at one order lesser values of static axial magnetic field and laser intensity

  18. Hybrid TE-TM scheme for time domain numerical calculations of wakefields in structures with walls of finite conductivity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andranik Tsakanian

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available In particle accelerators a preferred direction, the direction of motion, is well defined. If in a numerical calculation the (numerical dispersion in this direction is suppressed, a quite coarse mesh and moderate computational resources can be used to reach accurate results even for extremely short electron bunches. Several approaches have been proposed in the past decades to reduce the accumulated dispersion error in wakefield calculations for perfectly conducting structures. In this paper we extend the TE/TM splitting algorithm to a new hybrid scheme that allows for wakefield calculations in structures with walls of finite conductivity. The conductive boundary is modeled by one-dimensional wires connected to each boundary cell. A good agreement of the numerical simulations with analytical results and other numerical approaches is obtained.

  19. Shaping laser accelerated ions for future applications – The LIGHT collaboration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Busold, S.; Almomani, A.; Bagnoud, V.; Barth, W.; Bedacht, S.; Blažević, A.; Boine-Frankenheim, O.

    2014-01-01

    The generation of intense ion beams from high-intensity laser-generated plasmas has been the focus of research for the last decade. In the LIGHT collaboration the expertise of heavy ion accelerator scientists and laser and plasma physicists has been combined to investigate the prospect of merging these ion beams with conventional accelerator technology and exploring the possibilities of future applications. We report about the goals and first results of the LIGHT collaboration to generate, handle and transport laser driven ion beams. This effort constitutes an important step in research for next generation accelerator technologies

  20. Shaping laser accelerated ions for future applications – The LIGHT collaboration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Busold, S., E-mail: s.busold@gsi.de [Institut für Kernphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Schloßgartenstraße 9, D-64289 Darmstadt (Germany); Almomani, A. [Institut für angewandte Physik, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Max von Laue Straße 1, D-60438 Frankfurt (Germany); Bagnoud, V. [GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Planckstraße 1, D-64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Helmholtz Institut Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, D-07734 Jena (Germany); Barth, W. [GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Planckstraße 1, D-64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Bedacht, S. [Institut für Kernphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Schloßgartenstraße 9, D-64289 Darmstadt (Germany); Blažević, A. [GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Planckstraße 1, D-64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Helmholtz Institut Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, D-07734 Jena (Germany); Boine-Frankenheim, O. [GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Planckstraße 1, D-64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Institut für Theorie Elektromagnetischer Felder, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Schloßgartenstraße 8, D-64289 Darmstadt (Germany); and others

    2014-03-11

    The generation of intense ion beams from high-intensity laser-generated plasmas has been the focus of research for the last decade. In the LIGHT collaboration the expertise of heavy ion accelerator scientists and laser and plasma physicists has been combined to investigate the prospect of merging these ion beams with conventional accelerator technology and exploring the possibilities of future applications. We report about the goals and first results of the LIGHT collaboration to generate, handle and transport laser driven ion beams. This effort constitutes an important step in research for next generation accelerator technologies.

  1. Characterization of the equilibrium configuration for modulated beams in a plasma wakefield accelerator

    CERN Document Server

    Martorelli, Roberto

    2016-01-01

    We analyze the equilibrium configuration for a modulated beam with sharp boundaries exposed to the fields self-generated by the interaction with a plasma. Through a semi-analytical approach we show the presence of multiple equilibrium configurations and we determine the one more suitable for wakefield excitation. Once pointed out the absence of confinement for the front of the beam and the consequently divergence driven by the emittance, we study the evolution of the equilibrium configuration while propagating in the plasma, discarding all the others time-dependencies. We show the onset of a rigid backward drift of the equilibrium configuration and we provide an explanation in the increasing length of the first bunch.

  2. Ion Acceleration by Laser Plasma Interaction from Cryogenic Microjets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Propp, Adrienne [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)

    2015-08-16

    Processes that occur in extreme conditions, such as in the center of stars and large planets, can be simulated in the laboratory using facilities such as SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). These facilities allow scientists to investigate the properties of matter by observing their interactions with high-power lasers. Ion acceleration from laser plasma interaction is gaining greater attention today due to its widespread potential applications, including proton beam cancer therapy and fast ignition for energy production. Typically, ion acceleration is achieved by focusing a high power laser on thin foil targets through a mechanism called Target Normal Sheath Acceleration. However, this mechanism is not ideal for creating the high-energy proton beams needed for future applications. Based on research and recent experiments, we hypothesized that a pure liquid cryogenic jet would be an ideal target for exploring new regimes of ion acceleration. Furthermore, it would provide a continuous, pure target, unlike metal foils which are consumed in the interaction and easily contaminated. In an effort to test this hypothesis, we used the 527 nm split beam, frequency-doubled TITAN laser at JLF. Data from the cryogenic jets was limited due to the flow of current up the jet into the nozzle during the interaction, heating the jet and damaging the orifice. However, we achieved a pure proton beam with evidence of a monoenergetic feature. Furthermore, data from gold and carbon wires showed surprising and interesting results. Preliminary analysis of data from two ion emission diagnostics, Thomson parabola spectrometers (TPs) and radio chromic films (RCFs), suggests that shockwave acceleration occurred rather than target normal sheath acceleration, the standard mechanism of ion acceleration. Upon completion of the experiment at TITAN, I researched the possibility of transforming our liquid cryogenic

  3. Ion Acceleration by Laser Plasma Interaction from Cryogenic Microjets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Propp, Adrienne

    2015-01-01

    Processes that occur in extreme conditions, such as in the center of stars and large planets, can be simulated in the laboratory using facilities such as SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). These facilities allow scientists to investigate the properties of matter by observing their interactions with high-power lasers. Ion acceleration from laser plasma interaction is gaining greater attention today due to its widespread potential applications, including proton beam cancer therapy and fast ignition for energy production. Typically, ion acceleration is achieved by focusing a high power laser on thin foil targets through a mechanism called Target Normal Sheath Acceleration. However, this mechanism is not ideal for creating the high-energy proton beams needed for future applications. Based on research and recent experiments, we hypothesized that a pure liquid cryogenic jet would be an ideal target for exploring new regimes of ion acceleration. Furthermore, it would provide a continuous, pure target, unlike metal foils which are consumed in the interaction and easily contaminated. In an effort to test this hypothesis, we used the 527 nm split beam, frequency-doubled TITAN laser at JLF. Data from the cryogenic jets was limited due to the flow of current up the jet into the nozzle during the interaction, heating the jet and damaging the orifice. However, we achieved a pure proton beam with evidence of a monoenergetic feature. Furthermore, data from gold and carbon wires showed surprising and interesting results. Preliminary analysis of data from two ion emission diagnostics, Thomson parabola spectrometers (TPs) and radio chromic films (RCFs), suggests that shockwave acceleration occurred rather than target normal sheath acceleration, the standard mechanism of ion acceleration. Upon completion of the experiment at TITAN, I researched the possibility of transforming our liquid cryogenic

  4. Effects of laser-polarization and wiggler magnetic fields on electron acceleration in laser-cluster interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh Ghotra, Harjit; Kant, Niti

    2018-06-01

    We examine the electron dynamics during laser-cluster interaction. In addition to the electrostatic field of an individual cluster and laser field, we consider an external transverse wiggler magnetic field, which plays a pivotal role in enhancing the electron acceleration. Single-particle simulation has been presented with a short pulse linearly polarized as well as circularly polarized laser pulses for electron acceleration in a cluster. The persisting Coulomb field allows the electron to absorb energy from the laser field. The stochastically heated electron finds a weak electric field at the edge of the cluster from where it is ejected. The wiggler magnetic field connects the regions of the stochastically heated, ejected electron from the cluster and high energy gain by the electron from the laser field outside the cluster. This increases the field strength and hence supports the electron to meet the phase of the laser field for enhanced acceleration. A long duration resonance appears with an optimized magnetic wiggler field of about 3.4 kG. Hence, the relativistic energy gain by the electron is enhanced up to a few 100 MeV with an intense short pulse laser with an intensity of about 1019 W cm‑2 in the presence of a wiggler magnetic field.

  5. Micron-scale resolution radiography of laser-accelerated and laser-exploded foils using an yttrium x-ray laser

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cauble, R.; Da Silva, L.B.; Barbee, T.W. Jr.; Celliers, P.; Moreno, J.C.; Mrowka, S.; Perry, T.S.; Wan, A.S.

    1994-09-01

    The authors have imaged laser-accelerated foils and exploding foils on the few-micron scale using an yttrium x-ray laser (155 angstrom, 80 eV, ∼200 ps duration) and a multilayer mirror imaging system. At the maximum magnification of 30, resolution was of order one micron. The images were side-on radiographs of the foils. Accelerated foils showed significant filamentation on the rear-side (away from the driving laser) of the foil, although the laser beam was smoothed. In addition to the narrow rear-side filamentation, some shots revealed larger-scale plume-like structures on the front (driven) side of the Al foil. These plumes seem to be little-affected by beam smoothing and are likely a consequence of Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The experiments were carried out at the Nova two-beam facility

  6. Novel target design for enhanced laser driven proton acceleration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malay Dalui

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available We demonstrate a simple method of preparing structured target for enhanced laser-driven proton acceleration under target-normal-sheath-acceleration scheme. A few layers of genetically modified, clinically grown micron sized E. Coli bacteria cell coated on a thin metal foil has resulted in an increase in the maximum proton energy by about 1.5 times and the total proton yield is enhanced by approximately 25 times compared to an unstructured reference foil at a laser intensity of 1019 W/cm2. Particle-in-cell simulations on the system shows that the structures on the target-foil facilitates anharmonic resonance, contributing to enhanced hot electron production which leads to stronger accelerating field. The effect is observed to grow as the number of structures is increased in the focal area of the laser pulse.

  7. An analytical reconstruction model of the spread-out Bragg peak using laser-accelerated proton beams.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, Li; Zhu, Kun; Zhu, Jungao; Xu, Xiaohan; Lin, Chen; Ma, Wenjun; Lu, Haiyang; Zhao, Yanying; Lu, Yuanrong; Chen, Jia-Er; Yan, Xueqing

    2017-07-07

    With the development of laser technology, laser-driven proton acceleration provides a new method for proton tumor therapy. However, it has not been applied in practice because of the wide and decreasing energy spectrum of laser-accelerated proton beams. In this paper, we propose an analytical model to reconstruct the spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) using laser-accelerated proton beams. Firstly, we present a modified weighting formula for protons of different energies. Secondly, a theoretical model for the reconstruction of SOBPs with laser-accelerated proton beams has been built. It can quickly calculate the number of laser shots needed for each energy interval of the laser-accelerated protons. Finally, we show the 2D reconstruction results of SOBPs for laser-accelerated proton beams and the ideal situation. The final results show that our analytical model can give an SOBP reconstruction scheme that can be used for actual tumor therapy.

  8. Ultra fast imaging of a laser wake field accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saevert, Alexander; Schnell, Michael; Nicolai, Maria; Reuter, Maria; Schwab, Matthew B.; Moeller, Max [Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet, Jena (Germany); Mangles, Stuart P.D.; Cole, Jason M.; Poder, Kristjan; Najmudin, Zulfikar [The John Adams Institute Imperial College, London (United Kingdom); Jaeckel, Oliver; Paulus, Gerhard G.; Spielmann, Christian; Kaluza, Malte C. [Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet, Jena (Germany); Helmholtz Institut Jena, Jena (Germany)

    2014-07-01

    Ultra intense laser pulses are known to excite plasma waves with a relativistic phase velocity. By harnessing these waves it is possible to generate quasi-monoenergetic, ultra-short electron pulses with kinetic energies from 0.1 to 2 GeV by guiding the laser pulse over several Rayleigh lengths. To further improve the stability of these particle pulses and ultimately to be able to tailor the energy spectrum toward their suitability for various applications, the physics underlying the different acceleration scenarios need to be understood as completely as possible. To be able to resolve the acceleration process diagnostics well-suited for this plasma environment need to be designed and realized. By using sub-10 fs probe pulses we were able to freeze the transient accelerating structure in the plasma. We will present the first results of an experiment which was carried out with the 30 TW JETi Laser and a few cycle probe pulse at the Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics Jena. The resulting snapshots show unprecedented details from the laser plasma interaction and allow a direct comparison to computer simulations.

  9. Linear accelerators of the future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loew, G.A.

    1986-07-01

    Some of the requirements imposed on future linear accelerators to be used in electron-positron colliders are reviewed, as well as some approaches presently being examined for meeting those requirements. RF sources for use in these linacs are described, as well as wakefields, single bunches, and multiple-bunch trains

  10. LIGHT - from laser ion acceleration to future applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roth, Markus; Light Collaboration

    2013-10-01

    Creation of high intensity multi-MeV ion bunches by high power lasers became a reliable tool during the last 15 years. The laser plasma source provides for TV/m accelerating field gradients and initially sub-ps bunch lengths. However, the large envelope divergence and the continuous exponential energy spectrum are substential drawbacks for many possible applications. To face this problem, the LIGHT collaboration was founded (Laser Ion Generation, Handling and Transport). The collaboration consists of several university groups and research centers, namely TU Darmstadt, JWGU Frankfurt, HI Jena, HZDR Dresden and GSI Darmstadt. The central goal is building a test beamline for merging laser ion acceleration with conventional accelerator infrastructure at the GSI facility. In the latest experiments, low divergent proton bunches with a central energy of up to 10 MeV and containing >109 particles could be provided at up to 2.2 m behind the plasma source, using a pulsed solenoid. In a next step, a radiofrequency cavity will be added to the beamline for phase rotation of these bunches, giving access to sub-ns bunch lengths and reaching highest intensities. An overview of the LIGHT objectives and the recent experimental results will be given. This work was supported by HIC4FAIR.

  11. Relativistic electron acceleration by net inverse bremsstrahlung in a laser-irradiated plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, S.H.; Chen, K.W.

    1985-01-01

    Using the quantum-kinetic method, the net acceleration of relativistic electrons in a laser-irradiated plasma is studied as a function of the relevant parameters of the incident laser wave and the plasma wave. It is suggested that, in general, the net acceleration in laser-produced turbulent plasmas is primarily due to inverse bremsstrahlung proceses, and the acceleration gradient exceeds several hundreds gigavolt per meter when the electron energy is large (TeV) and the momentum spread of the beam is properly controlled

  12. Physical Foundations for Acceleration by Traveling Laser Focus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mikhailichenko, A.A.

    2004-01-01

    In this method called Travelling Laser Focus (TLF), multi-cell microstructures scaled down to the laser wavelength-size. Each cell in these structures has an opening from the side. Special Electro-Optical device controllably sweeps focused laser spot along these openings in accordance with instant position of accelerated micro-bunch inside the structure. This arrangement reduces the illuminating time for every point on the structure's surface and power required from the laser. Physical limitations considered for mostly important components of the TLF scheme

  13. A fast way for calculating longitudinal wakefields for high Q resonances

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cheng-Yang Tan and James M Steimel

    2001-01-01

    We have come up with a way for calculating longitudinal wakefields for high Q resonances by mapping the wake functions to a two dimension vector space. Then in this space, a transformation which is basically a scale change and a rotation, allows us to calculate the new wakefield by knowing only one previous wakefield and one previous particle passage through the cavity. We will also compare this method to the brute force method which needs to know all the passages of the previous particles through the cavity

  14. Electron acceleration using laser produced plasmas

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva; Landua, Rolf

    2005-01-01

    Low density plasmas have long been of interest as a potential medium for particle acceleration since relativistic plasma waves are capable of supporting electric fields greater than 100 GeV/m. The physics of particle acceleration using plasmas will be reviewed, and new results will be discussed which have demonstrated that relatively narrow energy spread (<3%) beams having energies greater than 100 MeV can be produced from femtosecond laser plasma interactions. Future experiments and potential applications will also be discussed.

  15. Role of laser contrast and foil thickness in target normal sheath acceleration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gizzi, L.A. [ILIL, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR, Via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa (Italy); INFN Sezione di Pisa, Largo Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa (Italy); Altana, C. [Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Catania (Italy); Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, INFN, Via S. Sofia, Catania (Italy); Brandi, F. [ILIL, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR, Via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa (Italy); Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova (Italy); Cirrone, P. [Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, INFN, Via S. Sofia, Catania (Italy); Cristoforetti, G. [ILIL, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR, Via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa (Italy); Fazzi, A. [Energy Department, Polytechnic of Milan, Milan (Italy); INFN, Milan (Italy); Ferrara, P.; Fulgentini, L. [ILIL, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR, Via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa (Italy); Giove, D. [INFN-LASA, Via Fratelli Cervi 201, 20090 Segrate (Italy); Koester, P. [ILIL, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR, Via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa (Italy); Labate, L. [ILIL, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR, Via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa (Italy); INFN Sezione di Pisa, Largo Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa (Italy); Lanzalone, G. [Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, INFN, Via S. Sofia, Catania (Italy); Università degli Studi di Enna Kore, Via delle Olimpiadi, 94100 Enna (Italy); Londrillo, P. [INAF–Osservatorio astronomico Bologna (Italy); Mascali, D.; Muoio, A. [Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, INFN, Via S. Sofia, Catania (Italy); Palla, D. [ILIL, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR, Via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa (Italy); INFN Sezione di Pisa, Largo Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa (Italy); Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa (Italy); Schillaci, F. [Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, INFN, Via S. Sofia, Catania (Italy); Sinigardi, S. [Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Bologna (Italy); INFN, Sez. di Bologna, Via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna (Italy); and others

    2016-09-01

    In this paper we present an experimental investigation of laser driven light-ion acceleration using the ILIL laser at an intensity of 2×10{sup 19} W/cm{sup 2}. In the experiment we focused our attention on the identification of the role of target thickness and resistivity in the fast electron transport and in the acceleration process. Here we describe the experimental results concerning the effect of laser contrast in the laser–target interaction regime. We also show preliminary results on ion acceleration which provide information about the role of bulk target ions and surface ions and target dielectric properties in the acceleration process.

  16. Dynamics and transport of laser-accelerated particle beams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Becker, Stefan

    2010-01-01

    The subject of this thesis is the investigation and optimization of beam transport elements in the context of the steadily growing field of laser-driven particle acceleration. The first topic is the examination of the free vacuum expansion of an electron beam at high current density. It could be shown that particle tracking codes which are commonly used for the calculation of space charge effects will generate substantial artifacts in the regime considered here. The artifacts occurring hitherto predominantly involve insufficient prerequisites for the Lorentz transformation, the application of inadequate initial conditions and non negligible retardation artifacts. A part of this thesis is dedicated to the development of a calculation approach which uses a more adequate ansatz calculating space charge effects for laser-accelerated electron beams. It can also be used to validate further approaches for the calculation of space charge effects. The next elements considered are miniature magnetic quadrupole devices for the focusing of charged particle beams. General problems involved with their miniaturization concern distorting higher order field components. If these distorting components cannot be controlled, the field of applications is very limited. In this thesis a new method for the characterization and compensation of the distorting components was developed, which might become a standard method when assembling these permanent magnet multipole devices. The newly developed characterization method has been validated at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) electron accelerator. Now that we can ensure optimum performance, the first application of permanent magnet quadrupole devices in conjunction with laser-accelerated ion beams is presented. The experiment was carried out at the Z-Petawatt laser system at Sandia National Laboratories. A promising application for laser-accelerated electron beams is the FEL in a university-scale size. The first discussion of all relevant aspects

  17. Dynamics and transport of laser-accelerated particle beams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Becker, Stefan

    2010-04-19

    The subject of this thesis is the investigation and optimization of beam transport elements in the context of the steadily growing field of laser-driven particle acceleration. The first topic is the examination of the free vacuum expansion of an electron beam at high current density. It could be shown that particle tracking codes which are commonly used for the calculation of space charge effects will generate substantial artifacts in the regime considered here. The artifacts occurring hitherto predominantly involve insufficient prerequisites for the Lorentz transformation, the application of inadequate initial conditions and non negligible retardation artifacts. A part of this thesis is dedicated to the development of a calculation approach which uses a more adequate ansatz calculating space charge effects for laser-accelerated electron beams. It can also be used to validate further approaches for the calculation of space charge effects. The next elements considered are miniature magnetic quadrupole devices for the focusing of charged particle beams. General problems involved with their miniaturization concern distorting higher order field components. If these distorting components cannot be controlled, the field of applications is very limited. In this thesis a new method for the characterization and compensation of the distorting components was developed, which might become a standard method when assembling these permanent magnet multipole devices. The newly developed characterization method has been validated at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) electron accelerator. Now that we can ensure optimum performance, the first application of permanent magnet quadrupole devices in conjunction with laser-accelerated ion beams is presented. The experiment was carried out at the Z-Petawatt laser system at Sandia National Laboratories. A promising application for laser-accelerated electron beams is the FEL in a university-scale size. The first discussion of all relevant aspects

  18. Novel methods in the Particle-In-Cell accelerator Code-Framework Warp

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vay, J-L [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Grote, D. P. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Cohen, R. H. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Friedman, A. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

    2012-12-26

    The Particle-In-Cell (PIC) Code-Framework Warp is being developed by the Heavy Ion Fusion Science Virtual National Laboratory (HIFS-VNL) to guide the development of accelerators that can deliver beams suitable for high-energy density experiments and implosion of inertial fusion capsules. It is also applied in various areas outside the Heavy Ion Fusion program to the study and design of existing and next-generation high-energy accelerators, including the study of electron cloud effects and laser wakefield acceleration for example. This study presents an overview of Warp's capabilities, summarizing recent original numerical methods that were developed by the HIFS-VNL (including PIC with adaptive mesh refinement, a large-timestep 'drift-Lorentz' mover for arbitrarily magnetized species, a relativistic Lorentz invariant leapfrog particle pusher, simulations in Lorentz-boosted frames, an electromagnetic solver with tunable numerical dispersion and efficient stride-based digital filtering), with special emphasis on the description of the mesh refinement capability. In addition, selected examples of the applications of the methods to the abovementioned fields are given.

  19. The evolution of high energy accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Courant, E.D.

    1994-01-01

    Accelerators have been devised and built for two reasons: In the first place, by physicists who needed high energy particles in order to have a means to explore the interactions between particles that probe the fundamental elementary forces of nature. And conversely, sometimes accelerator builders produce new machines for higher energy than ever before just because it can be done, and then challenge potential users to make new discoveries with the new means at hand. These two approaches or motivations have gone hand in hand. This lecture traces how high energy particle accelerators have grown from tools used for esoteric small-scale experiments to the gigantic projects of today. So far all the really high-energy machines built and planned in the world--except the SLC--have been ring accelerators and storage rings using the strong-focusing method. But this method has not removed the energy limit, it has only pushed it higher. It would seem unlikely that one can go beyond the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)--but in fact a workshop was held in Sicily in November 1991, concerned with the question of extrapolating to 100 TeV. Other acceleration and beam-forming methods are now being discussed--collective fields, laser acceleration, wake-field accelerators etc., all aimed primarily at making linear colliders possible and more attractive than with present radiofrequency methods. So far it is not entirely clear which of these schemes will dominate particle physics in the future--maybe something that has not been thought of as yet

  20. Unlimited electron acceleration in laser-driven plasma waves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Katsouleas, T.; Dawson, J.M.

    1983-01-01

    It is shown that the limitation to the energy gain of 2(ω/ω/sub p/) 2 mc 2 of an electron in the laser-plasma beat-wave accelerator can be overcome by imposing a magnetic field of appropriate strength perpendicular to the plasma wave. This accelerates particles parallel to the phase fronts of the accelerating wave which keeps them in phase with it. Arbitrarily large energy is theoretically possible