Study of electron acceleration and x-ray radiation as a function of plasma density in capillary-guided laser wakefield accelerators

Summary, in English

Laser wakefield electron acceleration in the blow-out regime and the associated betatron X-ray radiation were investigated experimentally as a function of the plasma density in a configuration where the laser is guided. Dielectric capillary tubes were employed to assist the laser keeping self-focused over a long distance by collecting the laser energy around its central focal spot. With a 40 fs, 16 TW pulsed laser, electron bunches with tens of pC charge were measured to be accelerated to an energy up to 300 MeV, accompanied by X-ray emission with a peak brightness of the order of 10 21 ph/s/mm(2)/mrad(2)/0.1%BW. Electron trapping and acceleration were studied using the emitted X-ray beam distribution to map the acceleration process; the number of betatron oscillations performed by the electrons was inferred from the correlation between measured X-ray fluence and beam charge. A study of the stability of electron and X-ray generation suggests that the fluctuation of X-ray emission can be reduced by stabilizing the beam charge. The experimental results are in good agreement with 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

• Author: J. Ju; Kristoffer Svensson; H. Ferrari; A. Doepp; Guillaume Genoud; Franck Wojda; Matthias Burza; Anders Persson; Olle Lundh; Claes-Göran Wahlström; B. Cros
• Department/s: Atomic Physics; MAX IV Laboratory
• Publishing year: 2013
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Physics of Plasmas
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 8
• Full text: - 4 MB; Download statistics
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4817747
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1070-664X