Journal
NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS
Volume 14, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/14/3/033025
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Funding
- US DOE [DE-FG02-08ER55000]
- NSF [PHY-1104683]
- LASERLAB-EUROPE/LAPTECH through EC [228334]
- GENCI-CCRT [2010-x2010056304]
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Recent experiments with 100 terawatt-class, sub-50 femtosecond laser pulses show that electrons self-injected into a laser-driven electron density bubble can be accelerated above 0.5 gigaelectronvolt energy in a sub-centimetre-length rarefied plasma. To reach this energy range, electrons must ultimately outrun the bubble and exit the accelerating phase; this, however, does not ensure high beam quality. Wake excitation increases the laser pulse bandwidth by red-shifting its head, keeping the tail unshifted. Anomalous group velocity dispersion of radiation in plasma slows down the red-shifted head, compressing the pulse into a few-cycle-long piston of relativistic intensity. Pulse transformation into a piston causes continuous expansion of the bubble, trapping copious numbers of unwanted electrons (dark current) and producing a poorly collimated, polychromatic energy tail, completely dominating the electron spectrum at the dephasing limit. The process of piston formation can be mitigated by using a broad-bandwidth (corresponding to a few-cycle transform-limited duration), negatively chirped pulse. Initial blue-shift of the pulse leading edge compensates for the nonlinear frequency red-shift and delays the piston formation, thus significantly suppressing the dark current, making the leading quasi-monoenergetic bunch the dominant feature of the electron spectrum near dephasing. This method of dark current control may be feasible for future experiments with ultrahigh-bandwidth, multi-joule laser pulses.
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