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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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)

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.

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...

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.

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

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...

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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

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

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

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)

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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)

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)

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 Acceleration – Laser 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

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)

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.)

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)

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.

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)

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Plasma particle accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dawson, J.M.

1988-01-01

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) will require an 87-kilometer accelerator ring to boost particles to 40 TeV. The SSC's size is due in part to the fact that its operating principle is the same one that has dominated accelerator design for 50 years: it guides particles by means of magnetic fields and propels them by strong electric fields. If one were to build an equally powerful but smaller accelerator, one would need to increase the strength of the guiding and propelling fields. Actually, however, conventional technology may not be able to provide significant increases in field strength. There are two reasons. First, the forces from magnetic fields are becoming greater than the structural forces that hold a magnetic material together; the magnets that produce these fields would themselves be torn apart. Second, the energy from electric fields is reaching the energies that bind electrons to atoms; it would tear electrons from nuclei in the accelerator's support structures. It is the electric field problem that plasma accelerators can overcome. Plasma particle accelerators are based on the principle that particles can be accelerated by the electric fields generated within a plasma. Because the plasma has already been ionized, plasma particle accelerators are not susceptible to electron dissociation. They can in theory sustain accelerating fields thousands of times stronger that conventional technologies. So far two methods for creating plasma waves for accelerators have been proposed and tested: the wakefield and the beat wave. Although promising electric fields have been produced, more research is necessary to determine whether plasma particle accelerators can compete with the existing accelerators. 7 figs

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

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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

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)

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

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)

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.

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.

Simulation of ionization effects for high-density positron drivers in future plasma wakefield experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bruhwiler, D.L.; Dimitrov, D.A.; Cary, J.R.; Esarey, E.; Leemans, W.P.

2003-01-01

The plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) concept has been proposed as a potential energy doubler for present or future electron-positron colliders. Recent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have shown that the self-fields of the required electron beam driver can tunnel ionize neutral Li, leading to plasma wake dynamics differing significantly from that of a preionized plasma. It has also been shown, for the case of a preionized plasma, that the plasma wake of a positron driver differs strongly from that of an electron driver. We will present new PIC simulations, using the OOPIC code, showing the effects of tunneling ionization on the plasma wake generated by high-density positron drivers. The results will be compared to previous work on electron drivers with tunneling ionization and positron drivers without ionization. Parameters relevant to the energy doubler and the upcoming E-164x experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center will be considered

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)

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

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)

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

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.

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.

Plasma production for electron acceleration by resonant plasma wave

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anania, M.P.; Biagioni, A.; Chiadroni, E.; Cianchi, A.; Croia, M.; Curcio, A.; Di Giovenale, D.; Di Pirro, G.P.; Filippi, F.; Ghigo, A.; Lollo, V.; Pella, S.; Pompili, R.; Romeo, S.; Ferrario, M.

2016-01-01

Plasma wakefield acceleration is the most promising acceleration technique known nowadays, able to provide very high accelerating fields (10–100 GV/m), enabling acceleration of electrons to GeV energy in few centimeter. However, the quality of the electron bunches accelerated with this technique is still not comparable with that of conventional accelerators (large energy spread, low repetition rate, and large emittance); radiofrequency-based accelerators, in fact, are limited in accelerating field (10–100 MV/m) requiring therefore hundred of meters of distances to reach the GeV energies, but can provide very bright electron bunches. To combine high brightness electron bunches from conventional accelerators and high accelerating fields reachable with plasmas could be a good compromise allowing to further accelerate high brightness electron bunches coming from LINAC while preserving electron beam quality. Following the idea of plasma wave resonant excitation driven by a train of short bunches, we have started to study the requirements in terms of plasma for SPARC-LAB (Ferrario et al., 2013 [1]). In particular here we focus on hydrogen plasma discharge, and in particular on the theoretical and numerical estimates of the ionization process which are very useful to design the discharge circuit and to evaluate the current needed to be supplied to the gas in order to have full ionization. Eventually, the current supplied to the gas simulated will be compared to that measured experimentally.

Plasma production for electron acceleration by resonant plasma wave

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anania, M.P., E-mail: maria.pia.anania@lnf.infn.it [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi, 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Biagioni, A.; Chiadroni, E. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi, 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Cianchi, A. [University of Rome Tor Vergata - INFN, via della Ricerca Scientifica, 1, 00133 Roma (Italy); INFN, Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 1, 00133 Roma (Italy); Croia, M.; Curcio, A. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi, 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); University of Rome La Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 2, 00185 Roma (Italy); Di Giovenale, D.; Di Pirro, G.P. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi, 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Filippi, F. [University of Rome La Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 2, 00185 Roma (Italy); Ghigo, A.; Lollo, V.; Pella, S.; Pompili, R. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi, 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); Romeo, S. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi, 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy); University of Rome La Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 2, 00185 Roma (Italy); Ferrario, M. [INFN - LNF, via Enrico Fermi, 40, 00044 Frascati (Italy)

2016-09-01

Plasma wakefield acceleration is the most promising acceleration technique known nowadays, able to provide very high accelerating fields (10–100 GV/m), enabling acceleration of electrons to GeV energy in few centimeter. However, the quality of the electron bunches accelerated with this technique is still not comparable with that of conventional accelerators (large energy spread, low repetition rate, and large emittance); radiofrequency-based accelerators, in fact, are limited in accelerating field (10–100 MV/m) requiring therefore hundred of meters of distances to reach the GeV energies, but can provide very bright electron bunches. To combine high brightness electron bunches from conventional accelerators and high accelerating fields reachable with plasmas could be a good compromise allowing to further accelerate high brightness electron bunches coming from LINAC while preserving electron beam quality. Following the idea of plasma wave resonant excitation driven by a train of short bunches, we have started to study the requirements in terms of plasma for SPARC-LAB (Ferrario et al., 2013 [1]). In particular here we focus on hydrogen plasma discharge, and in particular on the theoretical and numerical estimates of the ionization process which are very useful to design the discharge circuit and to evaluate the current needed to be supplied to the gas in order to have full ionization. Eventually, the current supplied to the gas simulated will be compared to that measured experimentally.

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

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.

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

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

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...

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.

The excitation of wakefield in plasma by the sequence of electron bunches

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Onishchenko, I.N.; Balakirev, V.A.; Berezin, A.K.; Fainberg, J.B.; Kiselyov, V.A.; Linnik, A.F.; Sidel'nikov, G.L.; Sotnikov, G.V.; Uskov, V.V.

1994-01-01

The theoretical and experimental investigations of wakefield excitation in plasma by the train of bunches were carried out. The dependence of the wakefield amplitude on the number of bunches was considered and the saturation mechanism was determined. (author). 6 refs, 3 figs

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Summary Report of Working Group 5: Electron Beam Driven Plasma Accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hogan, Mark J.; Conde, Manoel E.

2009-01-01

Electron beam driven plasma accelerators have seen rapid progress over the last decade. Recent efforts have built on this success by constructing a concept for a plasma wakefield accelerator based linear collider. The needs for any future collider to deliver both energy and luminosity have substantial implications for interpreting current experiments and setting priorities for the future. This working group reviewed current experiments and ideas in the context of the demands of a future collider. The many discussions and presentations are summarized here.

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.

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)

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

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

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.

AWAKE’s plasma cell arrives at its destination

CERN Multimedia

Antonella Del Rosso

2016-01-01

By harnessing the power of wakefields generated by a proton beam in a plasma cell, the AWAKE project aims to produce accelerator gradients hundreds of times higher than those achieved in current machines. Far from being just a dream, the AWAKE tunnel is progressively being filled with its vital components. This week, the plasma cell has been moved to its final position.   AWAKE's 10-metre-long plasma cell in the experiment tunnel. The proof-of-principle AWAKE experiment is being installed in the tunnel previously used by the CNGS facility. In AWAKE, a beam of protons from the SPS will be travelling through a plasma cell and 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 driven with protons and that its acceleration will be extremely powerful, hundreds of times more powe...

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

Program for Plasma-Based Concepts for Future High Energy Accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Katsouleas, Thomas C.; Muggli, Patric

2003-01-01

OAK B204 Program for Plasma-Based Concepts for Future High Energy Accelerators. The progress made under this program in the period since November 15, 2002 is reflected in this report. The main activities for this period were to conduct the first run of the E-164 high-gradient wakefield experiment at SLAC, to prepare for run 2 and to continue our collaborative effort with CERN to model electron cloud interactions in circular accelerators. Each of these is described. Also attached to this report are papers that were prepared or appeared during this period

Efficiency Versus Instability in Plasma Accelerators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lebedev, Valeri [Fermilab; Burov, Alexey [Fermilab; Nagaitsev, Sergei [Fermilab

2017-01-05

Plasma wake-field acceleration in a strongly nonlinear (a.k.a. the blowout) regime is one of the main candidates for future high-energy colliders. For this case, we derive a universal efficiency-instability relation, between the power efficiency and the key instability parameter of the witness bunch. We also show that in order to stabilize the witness bunch in a regime with high power efficiency, the bunch needs to have high energy spread, which is not presently compatible with collider-quality beam properties. It is unclear how such limitations could be overcome for high-luminosity linear colliders.

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.

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.

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...

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...

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Modulation of continuous electron beams in plasma wake-fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosenzweig, J.B.

1988-01-01

In this paper we discuss the interaction of a continuous electron beam with wake-field generated plasma waves. Using a one-dimensional two fluid model, a fully nonlinear analytical description of the interaction is obtained. The phenomena of continuous beam modulation and wave period shortening are discussed. The relationship between these effects and the two-stream instability is also examined. 12 refs., 1 fig

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

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.)

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.

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

A Concept of Plasma Wake Field Acceleration Linear Collider (PWFA-LC)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seryi, Andrei; Hogan, Mark; Pei, Shilun; Raubenheimer, Tor; Tenenbaum, Peter; Katsouleas, Tom; Huang, Chengkun; Joshi, Chan; Mori, Warren; Muggli, Patric

2009-01-01

Plasma Wake-Field Acceleration (PWFA) has demonstrated acceleration gradients above 50 GeV/m. Simulations have shown drive/witness bunch configurations that yield small energy spreads in the accelerated witness bunch and high energy transfer efficiency from the drive bunch to the witness bunch, ranging from 30% for a Gaussian drive bunch to 95% for a shaped longitudinal profile. These results open the opportunity for a linear collider that could be compact, efficient and more cost effective that the present microwave technologies. A concept of a PWFA-based Linear Collider (PWFA-LC) has been developed and is described in this paper. The drive beam generation and distribution, requirements on the plasma cells, and optimization of the interaction region parameters are described in detail. The R and D steps needed for further development of the concept are also outlined.

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

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)

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.

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)

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.

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.

Ion motion in the wake driven by long particle bunches in plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vieira, J.; Silva, L. O.; Fonseca, R. A.; Mori, W. B.

2014-01-01

We explore the role of the background plasma ion motion in self-modulated plasma wakefield accelerators. We employ Dawson's plasma sheet model to derive expressions for the transverse plasma electric field and ponderomotive force in the narrow bunch limit. We use these results to determine the on-set of the ion dynamics and demonstrate that the ion motion could occur in self-modulated plasma wakefield accelerators. Simulations show the motion of the plasma ions can lead to the early suppression of the self-modulation instability and of the accelerating fields. The background plasma ion motion can nevertheless be fully mitigated by using plasmas with heavier plasmas

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Wake-Field Wave Resonant Excitation in Magnetized Plasmas by Electromagnetic Pulse

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Milant'ev, V.P.; Turikov, V.A.

2006-01-01

In this paper the space charge wave excitation process at electromagnetic pulse propagation along external magnetic field in vicinity of electron cyclotron resonance. In hydrodynamic approach it is obtained an equation for plasma density under ponderomotive force action. With help of this equation we investigated a wake-field wave amplitude dependence from resonance detuning. The numerical simulation using a PIC method electromagnetic pulse propagation process in the resonant conditions was done

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Detection of inverse Compton scattering in plasma wakefield experiments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bohlen, Simon

2016-12-15

Inverse Compton scattering (ICS) is the process of scattering of photons and electrons, where the photons gain a part of the electrons energy. In combination with plasma wakefield acceleration (PWA), ICS offers a compact MeV γ-ray source. A numerical study of ICS radiation produced in PWA experiments at FLASHForward was performed, using an ICS simulation code and the results from particle-in-cell modelling. The possibility of determining electron beam properties from measurements of the γ-ray source was explored for a wide range of experimental conditions. It was found that information about the electron divergence, the electron spectrum and longitudinal information can be obtained from measurements of the ICS beams for some cases. For the measurement of the ICS profile at FLASHForward, a CsI(Tl) scintillator array was chosen, similar to scintillators used in other ICS experiments. To find a suitable detector for spectrum measurements, an experimental test of a Compton spectrometer at the RAL was conducted. This test showed that a similar spectrometer could also be used at FLASHForward. However, changes to the spectrometer could be needed in order to use the pair production effect. In addition, further studies using Geant4 could lead to a better reconstruction of the obtained data. The studies presented here show that ICS is a promising method to analyse electron parameters from PWA experiments in further detail.

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

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

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.

Accelerator Studies on a possible Experiment on Proton-Driven Plasma Wakefields at CERN

CERN Document Server

Assmann, R W; Fartoukh, S; Geschonke, G; Goddard, B; Hessler, C; Hillenbrand, S; Meddahi, M; Roesler, S; Zimmermann, F; Caldwell, A; Muggli, P; Xia, G

2011-01-01

There has been a proposal by Caldwell et al to use proton beams as drivers for high energy linear colliders. An experimental test with CERN’s proton beams is being studied. Such a test requires a transfer line for transporting the beam to the experiment, a focusing section for beam delivery into the plasma, the plasma cell and a downstream diagnostics and dump section. The work done at CERN towards the conceptual layout and design of such a test area is presented. A possible development of such a test area into a CERN test facility for high-gradient acceleration experiments is discussed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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

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

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...

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.

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

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

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)

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Large amplitude waves and fields in plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angelis, U. de; Naples Univ.

1990-02-01

In this review, based mostly on the results of the recent workshop on ''Large Amplitude Waves and Fields in Plasmas'' held at ICTP (Trieste, Italy) in May 1989 during the Spring College on Plasma Physics, I will mostly concentrate on underdense, cold, homogeneous plasmas, discussing some of the alternative (to fusion) uses of laser-plasma interaction. In Part I an outline of some basic non-linear processes is given, together with some recent experimental results. The processes are chosen because of their relevance to the applications or because new interesting developments have been reported at the ICTP workshop (or both). In Part II the excitation mechanisms and uses of large amplitude plasma waves are presented: these include phase-conjugation in plasmas, plasma based accelerators (beat-wave, plasma wake-field and laser wake-field), plasma lenses and plasma wigglers for Free Electron Lasers. (author)

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)

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.

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

Characterization studies of lithium vapour generated in heat pipe oven for the Plasma Wakefield Accelerator Experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohandas, K.K.; Mahavar, Kanchan; Ajai Kumar; Kumar, Ravi A.V.

2013-01-01

Characterization and optimization studies of lithium vapor by white light as well as UV laser absorption were carried out as part of generation of photo ionized Li plasma for the Plasma Wake Field Acceleration Experiment. Temperature and buffer gas pressure dependency of the neutral density of lithium vapor was studied in detail. The line integrated neutral density of Li(n o L) was found to be of the order of 10 17 -10 18 cm -2 at heat pipe oven temperatures in the range from 600-800℃ which is sufficient to obtain the required 1013-1014 cm -3 plasma densities by photo ionization. (author)

Preliminary Conceptual Design Report for the FACET-II Project at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hogan, Mark [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)

2016-04-22

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 is the focus of FACET, a National User Facility at SLAC. The existing FACET National User Facility uses part of SLAC’s two-mile-long linear accelerator to generate high-density beams of electrons and positrons. FACET-II is a new test facility to develop advanced acceleration and coherent radiation techniques with high-energy electron and positron beams. It is the only facility in the world with high energy positron beams. FACET-II provides a major upgrade over current FACET capabilities and the breadth of the potential research program makes it truly unique. It will synergistically pursue accelerator science that is vital to the future of both advanced acceleration techniques for High Energy Physics, ultra-high brightness beams for Basic Energy Science, and novel radiation sources for a wide variety of applications. The design parameters for FACET-II are set by the requirements of the plasma wakefield experimental program. To drive the plasma wakefield requires a high peak current, in excess of 10kA. To reach this peak current, the electron and positron design bunch size is 10μ by 10μ transversely with a bunch length of 10μ. This is more than 200 times better than what has been achieved at the existing FACET. The beam energy is 10 GeV, set by the Linac length available and the repetition rate is up to 30 Hz. The FACET-II project is scheduled to be constructed in three major stages. Components of the project discussed in detail include the following: electron injector, bunch compressors and linac, the positron system, the Sector 20 sailboat and W chicanes

On the Possibility of Accelerating Positron on an Electron Wake at SABER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ischebeck, R.; Joshi, C.; Katsouleas, T.C.; Muggli, P.; Wang, X.

2008-01-01

A new approach for positron acceleration in non-linear plasma wakefields driven by electron beams is presented. Positrons can be produced by colliding an electron beam with a thin foil target embedded in the plasma. Integration of positron production and acceleration in one stage is realized by a single relativistic, intense electron beam. Simulations with the parameters of the proposed SABER facility [1] at SLAC suggest that this concept could be tested there

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

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)

Plasma-based accelerator structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schroeder, Carl B.

1999-01-01

Plasma-based accelerators have the ability to sustain extremely large accelerating gradients, with possible high-energy physics applications. This dissertation further develops the theory of plasma-based accelerators by addressing three topics: the performance of a hollow plasma channel as an accelerating structure, the generation of ultrashort electron bunches, and the propagation of laser pulses is underdense plasmas

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.

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.

Improved plasma accelerator

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, D. Y.

1971-01-01

Converging, coaxial accelerator electrode configuration operates in vacuum as plasma gun. Plasma forms by periodic injections of high pressure gas that is ionized by electrical discharges. Deflagration mode of discharge provides acceleration, and converging contours of plasma gun provide focusing.

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

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...

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

Electron-phonon coupling effect on wakefields in piezoelectric semiconductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salimullah, M; Shukla, P K; Ghosh, S K; Nitta, H; Hayashi, Y

2003-01-01

Using an appropriate dielectric constant for an n-type piezoelectric semiconductor plasma and a moving test particle approach, it is shown that, besides the usual screened potential, there exists a non-Coulombian oscillatory potential or a wakefield behind a moving charged particle due to a strong resonant interaction between the charged particle and the electro-acoustic mode of the host semiconductor. With the concept of the wakefield, a possible lattice formation of colloids resulting from ion implantation in a current-carrying piezoelectric semiconductor has been examined

2014 CERN Accelerator Schools: Plasma Wake Acceleration

CERN Multimedia

2014-01-01

A specialised school on Plasma Wake Acceleration will be held at CERN, Switzerland from 23-29 November, 2014.   This course will be of interest to staff and students in accelerator laboratories, university departments and companies working in or having an interest in the field of new acceleration techniques. Following introductory lectures on plasma and laser physics, the course will cover the different components of a plasma wake accelerator and plasma beam systems. An overview of the experimental studies, diagnostic tools and state of the art wake acceleration facilities, both present and planned, will complement the theoretical part. Topical seminars and a visit of CERN will complete the programme. Further information can be found at: http://cas.web.cern.ch/cas/PlasmaWake2014/CERN-advert.html http://indico.cern.ch/event/285444/

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

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.

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

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)

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

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.

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.

First Observation of the Seeded Proton Bunch Self-Modulation in Plasma

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(CDS)2093171; Vincke, Helmut

In this thesis I observe experimentally and study in simulations the seeded selfmodulation of a relativistic proton bunch in AWAKE, the Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment. The 400 GeV/c proton bunch from the CERN SPS with a rms length of 12 cm propagates in a 10m long plasma with a density adjustable between 2-10x10^14 electrons/cm3. The seeded self-modulation process results in focusing and defocusing of the protons, thereby forming a bunch train that resonantly drives wakefields to large amplitudes. I use the two-screen measurement setup, to observe the result of the proton bunch self-modulation and to learn about its physics (i.e. growth of the process). The idea is to obtain images of protons that were defocused by the transverse wakefields, 2 and 10m downstream the end of the plasma. From these images I determine the maximum transverse momentum of the defocused protons as well as infer their point of origin along the plasma. I use simulations to guide the understanding of the...

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.

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.

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

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

Plasma-based and novel accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sugihara, Ryo; Nishida, Yasushi

1992-05-01

This publication is a collection of papers presented at Workshop on Plasma-Based and Novel Accelerators held at National Institute for Fusion Science, Nagoya, on December 19-20, 1991. Plasma-based accelerators are attracting considerable attention in these days a new, exciting field of plasma applications. The study gives rise to and spurs study of other unique accelerators like laser-based accelerators. The talks in the Workshop encompassed beat-wave accelerator (BWA), plasma wake field accelerator (PWFA), V p x B accelerator, laser-based accelerators and some novel methods of acceleration. They also covered the topics such as FEL, cluster acceleration and plasma lens. Small scale experiments as those in universities have exhibited brilliant results while larger scale experiments like BWA in Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, and PWFA in KEK start showing significant results as well. (J.P.N.)

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

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.

Plasma density characterization at SPARC-LAB through Stark broadening of Hydrogen spectral lines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Filippi, F., E-mail: francesco.filippi@roma1.infn.it [Dipartimento di Scienze di Base e Applicate per l' Ingegneria (SBAI), ‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma, Via A. Scarpa 14-16, 00161 Roma (Italy); INFN-Roma1, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 2 00161 Roma (Italy); Anania, M.P.; Bellaveglia, M.; Biagioni, A.; Chiadroni, E. [Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN, Via E. Fermi, Frascati (Italy); Cianchi, A. [Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá di Roma Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma (Italy); Di Giovenale, D.; Di Pirro, G.; Ferrario, M. [Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN, Via E. Fermi, Frascati (Italy); Mostacci, A.; Palumbo, L. [Dipartimento di Scienze di Base e Applicate per l' Ingegneria (SBAI), ‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma, Via A. Scarpa 14-16, 00161 Roma (Italy); INFN-Roma1, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 2 00161 Roma (Italy); Pompili, R.; Shpakov, V.; Vaccarezza, C.; Villa, F. [Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN, Via E. Fermi, Frascati (Italy); Zigler, A. [Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904 (Israel)

2016-09-01

Plasma-based acceleration techniques are of great interest for future, compact accelerators due to their high accelerating gradient. Both particle-driven and laser-driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration experiments are foreseen at the SPARC-LAB Test Facility (INFN National Laboratories of Frascati, Italy), with the aim to accelerate high-brightness electron beams. In order to optimize the efficiency of the acceleration in the plasma and preserve the quality of the accelerated beam, the knowledge of the plasma electron density is mandatory. The Stark broadening of the Hydrogen spectral lines is one of the candidates used to characterize plasma density. The implementation of this diagnostic for plasma-based experiments at SPARC-LAB is presented. - Highlights: • Stark broadening of Hydrogen lines has been measured to determine plasma density. • Plasma density diagnostic tool for plasma-based experiments at SPARC-LAB is presented. • Plasma density in tapered laser triggered ablative capillary discharge was measured. • Results of plasma density measurements in ablative capillaries are shown.

Plasma density characterization at SPARC-LAB through Stark broadening of Hydrogen spectral lines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Filippi, F.; Anania, M.P.; Bellaveglia, M.; Biagioni, A.; Chiadroni, E.; Cianchi, A.; Di Giovenale, D.; Di Pirro, G.; Ferrario, M.; Mostacci, A.; Palumbo, L.; Pompili, R.; Shpakov, V.; Vaccarezza, C.; Villa, F.; Zigler, A.

2016-01-01

Plasma-based acceleration techniques are of great interest for future, compact accelerators due to their high accelerating gradient. Both particle-driven and laser-driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration experiments are foreseen at the SPARC-LAB Test Facility (INFN National Laboratories of Frascati, Italy), with the aim to accelerate high-brightness electron beams. In order to optimize the efficiency of the acceleration in the plasma and preserve the quality of the accelerated beam, the knowledge of the plasma electron density is mandatory. The Stark broadening of the Hydrogen spectral lines is one of the candidates used to characterize plasma density. The implementation of this diagnostic for plasma-based experiments at SPARC-LAB is presented. - Highlights: • Stark broadening of Hydrogen lines has been measured to determine plasma density. • Plasma density diagnostic tool for plasma-based experiments at SPARC-LAB is presented. • Plasma density in tapered laser triggered ablative capillary discharge was measured. • Results of plasma density measurements in ablative capillaries are shown.

Electron density measurement in gas discharge plasmas by optical and acoustic methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Biagioni, A.; Anania, M.P.; Bellaveglia, M.; Chiadroni, E.; Giovenale, D. Di; Pirro, G. Di; Ferrario, M.; Pompili, R.; Shpakov, V.; Vaccarezza, C.; Villa, F.; Cianchi, A.; Filippi, F.; Mostacci, A.; Zigler, A.

2016-01-01

Plasma density represents a very important parameter for both laser wakefield and plasma wakefield acceleration, which use a gas-filled capillary plasma source. Several techniques can be used to measure the plasma density within a capillary discharge, which are mainly based on optical diagnostic methods, as for example the well-known spectroscopic method using the Stark broadening effect. In this work, we introduce a preliminary study on an alternative way to detect the plasma density, based on the shock waves produced by gas discharge in a capillary. Firstly, the measurements of the acoustic spectral content relative to the laser-induced plasmas by a solid target allowed us to understand the main properties of the acoustic waves produced during this kind of plasma generation; afterwards, we have extended such acoustic technique to the capillary plasma source in order to calibrate it by comparison with the stark broadening method.

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.

Acceleration Modes and Transitions in Pulsed Plasma Accelerators

Science.gov (United States)

Polzin, Kurt A.; Greve, Christine M.

2018-01-01

Pulsed plasma accelerators typically operate by storing energy in a capacitor bank and then discharging this energy through a gas, ionizing and accelerating it through the Lorentz body force. Two plasma accelerator types employing this general scheme have typically been studied: the gas-fed pulsed plasma thruster and the quasi-steady magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) accelerator. The gas-fed pulsed plasma accelerator is generally represented as a completely transient device discharging in approximately 1-10 microseconds. When the capacitor bank is discharged through the gas, a current sheet forms at the breech of the thruster and propagates forward under a j (current density) by B (magnetic field) body force, entraining propellant it encounters. This process is sometimes referred to as detonation-mode acceleration because the current sheet representation approximates that of a strong shock propagating through the gas. Acceleration of the initial current sheet ceases when either the current sheet reaches the end of the device and is ejected or when the current in the circuit reverses, striking a new current sheet at the breech and depriving the initial sheet of additional acceleration. In the quasi-steady MPD accelerator, the pulse is lengthened to approximately 1 millisecond or longer and maintained at an approximately constant level during discharge. The time over which the transient phenomena experienced during startup typically occur is short relative to the overall discharge time, which is now long enough for the plasma to assume a relatively steady-state configuration. The ionized gas flows through a stationary current channel in a manner that is sometimes referred to as the deflagration-mode of operation. The plasma experiences electromagnetic acceleration as it flows through the current channel towards the exit of the device. A device that had a short pulse length but appeared to operate in a plasma acceleration regime different from the gas-fed pulsed plasma

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.

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

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

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.

Theoretical Investigations of Plasma-Based Accelerators and Other Advanced Accelerator Concepts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shuets, G.

2004-01-01

Theoretical investigations of plasma-based accelerators and other advanced accelerator concepts. The focus of the work was on the development of plasma based and structure based accelerating concepts, including laser-plasma, plasma channel, and microwave driven plasma accelerators

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.

Dusty-Plasma Particle Accelerator

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, John E.

2005-01-01

A dusty-plasma apparatus is being investigated as means of accelerating nanometer- and micrometer-sized particles. Applications for the dusty-plasma particle accelerators fall into two classes: Simulation of a variety of rapidly moving dust particles and micrometeoroids in outer-space environments that include micrometeoroid streams, comet tails, planetary rings, and nebulae and Deposition or implantation of nanoparticles on substrates for diverse industrial purposes that could include hardening, increasing thermal insulation, altering optical properties, and/or increasing permittivities of substrate materials. Relative to prior apparatuses used for similar applications, dusty-plasma particle accelerators offer such potential advantages as smaller size, lower cost, less complexity, and increased particle flux densities. A dusty-plasma particle accelerator exploits the fact that an isolated particle immersed in plasma acquires a net electric charge that depends on the relative mobilities of electrons and ions. Typically, a particle that is immersed in a low-temperature, partially ionized gas, wherein the average kinetic energy of electrons exceeds that of ions, causes the particle to become negatively charged. The particle can then be accelerated by applying an appropriate electric field. A dusty-plasma particle accelerator (see figure) includes a plasma source such as a radio-frequency induction discharge apparatus containing (1) a shallow cup with a biasable electrode to hold the particles to be accelerated and (2) a holder for the substrate on which the particles are to impinge. Depending on the specific design, a pair of electrostatic-acceleration grids between the substrate and discharge plasma can be used to both collimate and further accelerate particles exiting the particle holder. Once exposed to the discharge plasma, the particles in the cup quickly acquire a negative charge. Application of a negative voltage pulse to the biasable electrode results in the

High energy plasma accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tajima, T.

1985-05-01

Colinear intense laser beams ω 0 , kappa 0 and ω 1 , kappa 1 shone on a plasma with frequency separation equal to the electron plasma frequency ω/sub pe/ are capable of creating a coherent large longitudinal electric field E/sub L/ = mc ω/sub pe//e of the order of 1GeV/cm for a plasma density of 10 18 cm -3 through the laser beat excitation of plasma oscillations. Accompanying favorable and deleterious physical effects using this process for a high energy beat-wave accelerator are discussed: the longitudinal dephasing, pump depletion, the transverse laser diffraction, plasma turbulence effects, self-steepening, self-focusing, etc. The basic equation, the driven nonlinear Schroedinger equation, is derived to describe this system. Advanced accelerator concepts to overcome some of these problems are proposed, including the plasma fiber accelerator of various variations. An advanced laser architecture suitable for the beat-wave accelerator is suggested. Accelerator physics issues such as the luminosity are discussed. Applications of the present process to the current drive in a plasma and to the excitation of collective oscillations within nuclei are also discussed

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

Converging-barrel plasma accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paine, T.O.

1971-01-01

The invention comprises a device for generating and accelerating plasma to extremely high velocity, while focusing the plasma to a decreasing cross section for attaining a very dense high-velocity plasma burst capable of causing nuclear fusion reactions. A converging coaxial accelerator-electrode configuration is employed with ''high-pressure'' gas injection in controlled amounts to achieve acceleration by deflagration and focusing by the shaped electromagnetic fields. (U.S.)

Plasma-focused cyclic accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mondelli, A.A.; Chernin, D.P.

1985-01-01

The use of ambient plasma to neutralize the transverse forces of an intense particle beam has been known for many years. Most recently, the so-called ion-focused regime (IFR) for beam propagation has been used as a means of focusing intense electron beams in linear accelerators and suggested for injecting an electron beam across magnetic field lines into a high-current cyclic accelerator. One technique for generating the required background plasma for IFR propagation is to use a laser to ionize ambient gas in the accelerator chamber. For cyclic accelerators a technique is required for carrying the plasma channel and the beam around a bend. Multiple laser-generated channels with dipole magnetic fields to switch the beam from one channel to the next have been tested at Sandia. This paper discusses an alternative means of plasma production for IFR, viz. by using rf breakdown. For this approach the accelerator chamber acts as a waveguide. With a suitable driving frequency, a waveguide mode can be driven which has its peak field intensity on the axis with negligible fields at the chamber walls. The plasma production and hence the beam propagation is thereby isolated from the walls. This technique is not limited to toroidal accelerators. It may be applied to any accelerator or recirculator geometry as well as for beam steering and for injection or extraction of beams in closed accelerator configurations

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

Acceleration of particles in plasmas

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2007-01-01

The accelerating fields in radio-frequency accelerators are limited to roughly 100 MV/m due to material breakdown which occurs on the walls of the structure. In contrast, a plasma, being already ionized, can support electric fields in excess of 100 GV/m. Such high accelerating gradients hold the promise of compact particle accelerators. Plasma acceleration has been an emerging and fast growing field of research in the past two decades. In this series of lectures, we will review the principles of plasma acceleration. We will see how relativistic plasma waves can be excited using an ultra-intense laser or using a particle beam. We will see how these plasma waves can be used to accelerate electrons to high energy in short distances. Throughout the lectures, we will also review recent experimental results. Current laser-plasma experiments throughout the world have shown that monoenergetic electron beams from 100 MeV to 1 GeV can be obtained in distances ranging from the millimetre to the centimetre. Experiments a...

Muon acceleration in cosmic-ray sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klein, Spencer R.; Mikkelsen, Rune E.; Becker Tjus, Julia

2013-01-01

Many models of ultra-high energy cosmic-ray production involve acceleration in linear accelerators located in gamma-ray bursts, magnetars, or other sources. These transient sources have short lifetimes, which necessitate very high accelerating gradients, up to 10 13 keV cm –1 . At gradients above 1.6 keV cm –1 , muons produced by hadronic interactions undergo significant acceleration before they decay. This muon acceleration hardens the neutrino energy spectrum and greatly increases the high-energy neutrino flux. Using the IceCube high-energy diffuse neutrino flux limits, we set two-dimensional limits on the source opacity and matter density, as a function of accelerating gradient. These limits put strong constraints on different models of particle acceleration, particularly those based on plasma wake-field acceleration, and limit models for sources like gamma-ray bursts and magnetars.

Plasma-focused cyclic accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mondelli, A.A.; Chernin, D.P.

1985-01-01

The use of ambient plasma to neutralize the transverse forces of an intense particle beam has been known for many years. Most recently, the so-called ion-focused regime (IFR) for beam propagation has been used as a means of focusing intense electron beams in linear accelerators and suggested for injecting an electron beam across magnetic field lines into a high-current cyclic accelerator. One technique for generating the required background plasma for IFR propagation is to use a laser to ionize ambient gas in the accelerator chamber. This paper discusses an alternative means of plasma production for IFR, viz. by using RF breakdown. For this approach the accelerator chamber acts as a waveguide. This technique is not limited to toroidal accelerators. It may be applied to any accelerator or recirculator geometry as well as for beam steering and for injection or extraction of beams in closed accelerator configurations

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.

Matching strategies for a plasma booster

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomassini, P; Rossi, A R

2016-01-01

This paper presents a theoretical study of a matching strategy for the laser-plasma wakefield accelerator where the injected electron beam is produced by an external source. The matching is achieved after an initial focusing using conventional beam optics, combining a linear tapering of plasma density and the increasing non linearity of the plasma wake due to the focusing of the laser driver. Both effects contribute in increasing the focusing strength from an initial relatively low value, to the considerably higher value present in the flat top plasma profile, where acceleration takes place. The same procedure is exploited to match the beam from plasma to vacuum once acceleration has occurred. Beam loading plays a crucial role both at the very beginning and end of the whole process. In the last stage, two more effects take place: a partial emittance compensation, reducing emittance value by a sizable amount, and a reduction of the energy spread, due to the relevant beam loading operating when the laser is defocused. (paper)

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

A periodic plasma waveguide accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cole, F.T.

1985-01-01

The increasing cost of synchrotrons and storage rings has given new interest in the search for new methods of acceleration. The primary goal of this search is very large accelerating fields, because the cost of an accelerator to reach TeV energies is dominated by costs that scale with length. Very large electric fields are possible in plasmas and in lasers and many geometries are being studied that make use of plasmas, lasers, or combinations of them. In a plasma accelerator, the plasma can have several different functions. It may act as a medium for the propagation of accelerating electric-field waves. In addition, these waves may also act as a source of the energy needed to accelerate particles. Accelerators using various waves in plasmas have been built and studied in many laboratories. The device proposed here is an attempt to separate the two functions of providing a medium and providing an energy source. A relatively low-energy electron beam is used as a non-neutral plasma only to make a slow-wave medium for the propagation of an externally generated wave. The wave is a TM electromagnetic wave and the device may be thought of as a conventional electron linear accelerator with the evacuated volume and metallic envelope replaced by the electron beam. A separate second beam, which may be electrons or heavier particles, is accelerated. The application in mind here is a single-pass collider

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Wake fields in semiconductor plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berezhiani, V.I.; Mahajan, S.M.

1994-05-01

It is shown that an intense short laser pulse propagating through a semiconductor plasma will generated longitudinal Langmuir waves in its wake. The measurable wake field can be used as a diagnostic to study nonlinear optical phenomena. For narrow gap semiconductors (for examples InSb) with Kane-type dispersion relation, the system can simulate, at currently available laser powers, the physics underlying wake-field accelerators. (author). 9 refs, 1 fig

CAS course on Plasma Wake Acceleration

CERN Multimedia

CERN Accelerator School

2015-01-01

The CERN Accelerator School (CAS) recently organised a specialised course on Plasma Wake Acceleration, held at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, from 23 to 29 November 2014.    Following a number of introductory lectures on laser and plasma physics, as well as an overview of conventional accelerators and their limitations, the course covered a large number of aspects of plasma wake acceleration schemes: the creation of plasma by high power lasers or particle beams, a description of the plasma creation process through simulations and the characteristics of the accelerated particle beams, including results of the latest achievements. Lectures on beam diagnostics, the applications of plasma accelerated beams, and topical seminars completed the programme.  The course was very successful, with 109 students of 26 nationalities attending; most participants coming from European counties, but also from the US, Israel, India, South Korea, Russia and Ukraine. Feedback from the participants was...

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.

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)

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

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)

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 .

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

Electron self-injection and trapping into an evolving plasma bubble.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalmykov, S; Yi, S A; Khudik, V; Shvets, G

2009-09-25

The blowout (or bubble) regime of laser wakefield acceleration is promising for generating monochromatic high-energy electron beams out of low-density plasmas. It is shown analytically and by particle-in-cell simulations that self-injection of the background plasma electrons into the quasistatic plasma bubble can be caused by slow temporal expansion of the bubble. Sufficient criteria for the electron trapping and bubble's expansion rate are derived using a semianalytic nonstationary Hamiltonian theory. It is further shown that the combination of bubble's expansion and contraction results in monoenergetic electron beams.

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.

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.

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

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.

Particle acceleration in near critical density plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gu, Y.J.; Kong, Q.; Kawata, S.; Izumiyama, T.; Nagashima, T.

2013-01-01

Charged particle acceleration schemes driven by ultra intense laser and near critical density plasma interactions are presented. They include electron acceleration in a plasma channel, ion acceleration by the Coulomb explosion and high energy electron beam driven ion acceleration. It is found that under the near critical density plasma both ions and electrons are accelerated with a high acceleration gradient. The electron beam containing a large charge quantity is accelerated well with 23 GeV/cm. The collimated ion bunch reaches 1 GeV. The investigations and discussions are based on 2.5D PIC (particle-in-cell) simulations. (author)

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.

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

Rippled plasma wall accelerating structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cavenago, M.

1992-01-01

A concept to form a hot, pulsed, inhomogeneous plasma and to use it as a linac structure is presented. The plasma spatial distribution is controlled by an external magnetic field and by the location of thermionic emitters; microwave ECR heating at frequency ω 1 favours plasma build up and reduces plasma resistivity. A shorter microwave pulse with frequency ω 2 ≠ ω 1 excites a longitudinal mode. An expression for the maximum attainable accelerating field is found. A linearized theory of accelerating modes is given. (Author) 6 refs., 3 figs

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.

The AWAKE Experimental Facility at CERN

CERN Document Server

Gschwendtner, E; Bracco, C; Butterworth, A; Cipiccia, S; Doebert, S; Fedosseev, V; Feldbaumer, E; Hessler, C; Hofle, W; Martyanov, M; Meddahi, M; Osborne, J; Pardons, A; Petrenko, A; Vincke, H

2014-01-01

AWAKE, an Advanced Wakefield Experiment is launched at CERN to verify the proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration concept. Proton bunches at 400 GeV/c will be extracted from the CERN SPS and sent along a 750 m long proton line to a plasma cell, a Rubidium vapour source, where the proton beam drives wakefields reaching accelerating gradients of several gigavolts per meter. A high power laser pulse will copropagate within the proton bunch creating the plasma by ionizing the (initially) neutral gas. An electron beam will be injected into the plasma cell to probe the accelerating wakefield. The AWAKE experiment will be installed in the CNGS facility. First proton beam to the plasma cell is expected by end 2016. The installation planning and the baseline parameters of the experiment are shown. The design of the experimental area and the integration of the new beam-lines as well as the experimental equipment are presented. The needed modifications of the infrastructure in the facility and a few challenges are h...

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.

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.

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)

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.

Acceleration of solid pellets using a plasma gun

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buller, T.L.; Turnbull, R.J.; Kim, K.

1979-01-01

The use of solid pellets of hydrogen isotopes to refuel thermonuclear fusion reactors based on the tokamak configuration will require that the pellets be accelerated to high velocities. One possible method of acceleration is to interact a fast plasma from a plasma gun with the pellets. In this paper preliminary results are given on the acceleration of solid pellets with a plasma gun. The plasma-gun requirements for successful acceleration to high velocities are discussed

Photocathode driven linac at UCLA for FEL and plasma wakefield acceleration experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hartman, S.; Aghamir, F.; Barletta, W.; Cline, D.; Dodd, J.; Katsouleas, T.; Kolonko, J.; Park, S.; Pellegrini, C.; Rosenzweig, J.; Smolin, J.; Terrien, J.; Davis, J.; Hairapetian, G.; Joshi, C.; Luhmann, N. Jr.; McDermott, D.

1991-01-01

The UCLA compact 20-MeV/c electron linear accelerator is designed to produce a single electron bunch with a peak current of 200 A, an rms energy spread of 0.2% or less, and a short 1.2 picosecond rms pulse duration. The linac is also designed to minimize emittance growth down the beamline so as to obtain emittances of the order of 8πmm-mrad in the experimental region. The linac will feed two beamlines, the first will run straight into the undulator for FEL experiments while the second will be used for diagnostics, longitudinal bunch compression, and other electron beam experiments. Here the authors describe the considerations put into the design of the accelerating structures and the transport to the experimental areas

Landscape of Future Accelerators at the Energy and Intensity Frontier

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Syphers, M. J. [Northern Illinois U.; Chattopadhyay, S. [Northern Illinois U.

2016-11-21

An overview is provided of the currently envisaged landscape of charged particle accelerators at the energy and intensity frontiers to explore particle physics beyond the standard model via 1-100 TeV-scale lepton and hadron colliders and multi-Megawatt proton accelerators for short- and long- baseline neutrino experiments. The particle beam physics, associated technological challenges and progress to date for these accelerator facilities (LHC, HL-LHC, future 100 TeV p-p colliders, Tev-scale linear and circular electron-positron colliders, high intensity proton accelerator complex PIP-II for DUNE and future upgrade to PIP-III) are outlined. Potential and prospects for advanced “nonlinear dynamic techniques” at the multi-MW level intensity frontier and advanced “plasma- wakefield-based techniques” at the TeV-scale energy frontier and are also described.

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

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.

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

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.)

Coherent control of plasma dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

He, Zhaohan

2014-10-01

The concept of coherent control - precise measurement or determination of a process through control of the phase of an applied oscillating field - has been applied to numerous systems with great success. Here, we demonstrate the use of coherent control on plasma dynamics in a laser wakefield electron acceleration experiment. A tightly focused femtosecond laser pulse (10 mJ, 35 fs) was used to generate electron beams by plasma wakefield acceleration in the density down ramp. The technique is based on optimization of the electron beam using a deformable mirror adaptive optical system with an iterative evolutionary genetic algorithm. The image of the electrons on a scintillator screen was processed and used in a fitness function as direct feedback for the optimization algorithm. This coherent manipulation of the laser wavefront leads to orders of magnitude improvement to the electron beam properties such as the peak charge and beam divergence. The laser beam optimized to generate the best electron beam was not the one with the ``best'' focal spot. When a particular wavefront of laser light interacts with plasma, it can affect the plasma wave structures and trapping conditions of the electrons in a complex way. For example, Raman forward scattering, envelope self-modulation, relativistic self-focusing, and relativistic self-phase modulation and many other nonlinear interactions modify both the pulse envelope and phase as the pulse propagates, in a way that cannot be easily predicted and that subsequently dictates the formation of plasma waves. The optimal wavefront could be successfully determined via the heuristic search under laser-plasma conditions that were not known a priori. Control and shaping of the electron energy distribution was found to be less effective, but was still possible. Particle-in-cell simulations were performed to show that the mode structure of the laser beam can affect the plasma wave structure and trapping conditions of electrons, which

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.

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)

Plasma wave accelerator. II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mori, W.; Joshi, C.; Dawson, J.M.

1982-01-01

It was shown that the insertion of a cross magnetic field prevents the particles from getting out of phase with the electric field of the plasma wave in the beat wave accelerator scheme. Thus, using a CO 2 laser, n/sub c//n/sub e/ = (ω 0 /ω/sub p/) 2 approx. 35, and a 300 kG magnetic field, electrons can be (in principle) accelerated to 100 GeV in 2 meters. For comparison without the magnetic field, the same energies may be obtained in a n/sub c//n/sub e/ approx. 10 5 plasma over a distance of 100 meters

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.

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

Single-stage plasma-based correlated energy spread compensation for ultrahigh 6D brightness electron beams

Science.gov (United States)

Manahan, G. G.; Habib, A. F.; Scherkl, P.; Delinikolas, P.; Beaton, A.; Knetsch, A.; Karger, O.; Wittig, G.; Heinemann, T.; Sheng, Z. M.; Cary, J. R.; Bruhwiler, D. L.; Rosenzweig, J. B.; Hidding, B.

2017-06-01

Plasma photocathode wakefield acceleration combines energy gains of tens of GeV m-1 with generation of ultralow emittance electron bunches, and opens a path towards 5D-brightness orders of magnitude larger than state-of-the-art. This holds great promise for compact accelerator building blocks and advanced light sources. However, an intrinsic by-product of the enormous electric field gradients inherent to plasma accelerators is substantial correlated energy spread--an obstacle for key applications such as free-electron-lasers. Here we show that by releasing an additional tailored escort electron beam at a later phase of the acceleration, when the witness bunch is relativistically stable, the plasma wave can be locally overloaded without compromising the witness bunch normalized emittance. This reverses the effective accelerating gradient, and counter-rotates the accumulated negative longitudinal phase space chirp of the witness bunch. Thereby, the energy spread is reduced by an order of magnitude, thus enabling the production of ultrahigh 6D-brightness beams.

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)

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

Plasma Channel Lenses and Plasma Tornadoes for Optical Beam Focusing and Transport

Science.gov (United States)

Hubbard, R. F.; Kaganovich, D.; Johnson, L. A.; Gordon, D. F.; Penano, J. R.; Hafizi, B.; Helle, M. H.; Mamonau, A. A.

2017-10-01

Shaped plasmas offer the possibility of manipulating laser pulses at intensities far above the damage limits for conventional optics. An example is the plasma channel, which is a cylindrical plasma column with an on-axis density minimum. Long plasma channels have been widely used to guide intense laser pulses, particularly in laser wakefield accelerators. A new concept, the ``plasma tornado'', offers the possibility of creating long plasma channels with no nearby structures and at densities lower than can be achieved by capillary discharges. A short plasma channel can focus a laser pulse in much the same manner as a conventional lens or off-axis parabola. When placed in front of the focal point of an intense laser pulse, a plasma channel lens (PCL) can reduce the effective f-number of conventional focusing optics. When placed beyond the focal point, it can act as a collimator. We will present experimental and modeling results for a new plasma tornado design, review experimental methods for generating short PCLs, and discuss potential applications. Supported by the Naval Research Laboratory Base Program.

Plasma accelerators at the energy frontier and on tabletops

CERN Document Server

Joshi, Chandrashekhar

2003-01-01

New approaches to charged-particle acceleration by collective fields in plasma were discussed. These approaches show considerable promise for realizing plasma accelerators at the energy frontier as well as table-top electron and ion accelerators. Charged particles surfing on electron density waves in plasmas can experience enormous accelerating gradients. (Edited abstract) 45 Refs.

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...

Particle acceleration and injection problem in relativistic and nonrelativistic shocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoshino, M.

2008-01-01

Acceleration of charged particles at the collisionless shock is believed to be responsible for production of cosmic rays in a variety of astrophysical objects such as supernova, AGN jet, and GRB etc., and the diffusive shock acceleration model is widely accepted as a key process for generating cosmic rays with non-thermal, power-law energy spectrum. Yet it is not well understood how the collisionless shock can produce such high energy particles. Among several unresolved issues, two major problems are the so-called '' injection '' problem of the supra-thermal particles and the generation of plasma waves and turbulence in and around the shock front. With recent advance of computer simulations, however, it is now possible to discuss those issues together with dynamical evolution of the kinetic shock structure. A wealth of modern astrophysical observations also inspires the dynamical shock structure and acceleration processes along with the theoretical and computational studies on shock. In this presentation, we focus on the plasma wave generation and the associated particle energization that directly links to the injection problem by taking into account the kinetic plasma processes of both non-relativistic and relativistic shocks by using a particle-in-cell simulation. We will also discuss some new particle acceleration mechanisms such as stochastic surfing acceleration and wakefield acceleration by the action of nonlinear electrostatic fields. (author)

Acceleration of plasma into vacuum

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marshall, John [Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, University of California, Los Alamos, NM (United States)

1958-07-01

The first part of this paper is a discussion of the magnetic acceleration of plasma. The second part contains a description of some experiments which have been performed. In the work reported the intention is: 1. To produce a burst of gas in vacuo; 2. To ionize the gas and heat it to such an extent that it becomes a good electrical conductor. 3. To accelerate the plasma thus produced into vacuum by the use of external time-varying magnetic fields.

Preliminary tests of the electrostatic plasma accelerator

Science.gov (United States)

Aston, G.; Acker, T.

1990-01-01

This report describes the results of a program to verify an electrostatic plasma acceleration concept and to identify those parameters most important in optimizing an Electrostatic Plasma Accelerator (EPA) thruster based upon this thrust mechanism. Preliminary performance measurements of thrust, specific impulse and efficiency were obtained using a unique plasma exhaust momentum probe. Reliable EPA thruster operation was achieved using one power supply.

Betatron radiation from a laser-plasma accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)