Ion-channel laser

Propagation of intense laser pulses in plasma with a prepared phase-space distribution

Optimizing the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) requires control of the intense driving laser pulse and its stable propagation. This is usually challenging because of mode mismatching arising from relativistic self-focusing, which invariably alters the velocity and shape of the laser pulse. Here we show how an intense pre-pulse can prepare the momentum/density phase-space distribution of plasma electrons encountered by a trailing laser pulse to control its propagation. This can also be used to minimize the evolution of the wakefield thus enhancing the stability of the LWFA, which is important for applications.

Positron acceleration via laser-augmented blowouts in two-column plasma structures

We propose a setup for positron acceleration consisting of an electron driver and a laser pulse creating a twofold plasma column structure. The resulting wakefield is capable of accelerating positron bunches over long distances even when the evolution of the driver is considered. The scheme is studied by means of particle-in-cell simulations. Further, the analytical expression for the accelerating and focusing fields are obtained, showing the equilibrium lines along which the witness bunch is accelerated.

Guided propagation of extremely intense lasers in plasma via ion motion

The upcoming 10-100 PW laser facilities may deliver laser pulses with unprecedented intensity of 10^{22}-10^{25}Wcm^{-2}. Such laser pulses interacting with ultrarelativistic electrons accelerated in plasma can trigger various nonlinear quantum electrodynamic processes. Usually, ion motion is expected to be ignorable since the laser intensities below 10^{25}Wcm^{-2} are underrelativistic for ions. Here, we find that ion motion becomes significant even with the intensity around 10^{22}Wcm^{-2} when electron cavitation is formed by the strong laser ponderomotive force. Due to the electron cavitation, guided laser propagation becomes impossible via usual plasma electron response to laser fields. However, we find that ion response to the laser fields may effectively guide laser propagation at such high intensity levels. The corresponding conditions of the required ion density distribution and laser power are presented and verified by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations.

How a relativistic electron beam-ion channel system can act as a polarizer

The polarization evolution of electromagnetic radiation propagating through an electron beam-ion channel system is studied in the presence of the coupling instability. Employing the system's dielectric tensor and the full four-component Stokes vector description, the obtained differential Mueller matrix is used to determine the polarization state of the initially polarized radiated wave at any arbitrary point in the system. It is shown that an unpolarized EM wave propagating through the electron beam-ion channel system will achieve a linearly polarization state aligned to the perpendicular self-magnetic field vector and propagation direction.

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

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.

Controlling and improving electron beam parameters are crucial for their application in free electron laser and X-ray sources. Here the authors generate quality electron beams with reduced energy spread from plasma accelerators by using a tailored escort electron bunch with the main accelerating bunch.

Role of Direct Laser Acceleration of Electrons in a Laser Wakefield Accelerator with Ionization Injection

We show the first experimental demonstration that electrons being accelerated in a laser wakefield accelerator operating in the forced or blowout regimes gain significant energy from both the direct laser acceleration (DLA) and the laser wakefield acceleration mechanisms. Supporting full-scale 3D particle-in-cell simulations elucidate the role of the DLA of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator when ionization injection of electrons is employed. An explanation is given for how electrons can maintain the DLA resonance condition in a laser wakefield accelerator despite the evolving properties of both the drive laser and the electrons. The produced electron beams exhibit characteristic features that are indicative of DLA as an additional acceleration mechanism.

Synergistic laser-wakefield and direct-laser acceleration in the plasma-bubble regime

The concept of a hybrid laser plasma accelerator is proposed. Relativistic electrons undergoing resonant betatron oscillations inside the plasma bubble created by a laser pulse are accelerated by gaining energy directly from the laser pulse and from its plasma wake. The resulting phase space of self-injected plasma electrons is split into two, containing a subpopulation that experiences wakefield acceleration beyond the standard dephasing limit because of the multidimensional nature of its motion that reduces the phase slippage between the electrons and the wake.

Plasma undulator based on laser excitation of wakefields in a plasma channel

An undulator is proposed based on the plasma wakefields excited by a laser pulse in a plasma channel. Generation of the undulator fields is achieved by inducing centroid oscillations of the laser pulse in the channel. The period of such an undulator is proportional to the Rayleigh length of the laser pulse and can be submillimeter, while preserving high undulator strength. The electron trajectories in the undulator are examined, expressions for the undulator strength are presented, and the spontaneous radiation is calculated. Multimode and multicolor laser pulses are considered for greater tunability of the undulator period and strength.

Generating overcritical dense relativistic electron beams via self-matching resonance acceleration

We show a novel self-matching resonance acceleration regime for generating dense relativistic electron beams by using ultraintense circularly polarized laser pulses in near-critical density plasmas. When the self-generated quasistatic axial magnetic field is strong enough to pinch and trap thermal relativistic electrons, an overdense electron bunch is formed in the center of the laser channel. In the trapping process, the electron betatron frequencies and phases can be adjusted automatically to match the resonance condition. The matched electrons are accelerated continuously and a collimated electron beam with overcritical density, helical structure, and plateau profile energy spectrum is hence generated.

X-ray amplification from a Raman free-electron laser

We demonstrate that a mm-scale free-electron laser can operate in the x-ray range, in the interaction between a moderately relativistic electron bunch, and a transverse high intensity optical lattice. The corrugated light-induced ponderomotive potential acts simultaneously as a guide and as a low-frequency wiggler, triggering stimulated Raman scattering. The gain law in the small signal regime is derived in a fluid approach, and confirmed from particle-in-cell simulations. We describe the nature of bunching, and discuss the saturation properties. The resulting all-optical Raman x-ray laser opens perspectives for ultracompact coherent light sources up to the hard x-ray range.

Magnetic control of particle injection in plasma based accelerators

The use of an external transverse magnetic field to trigger and to control electron self-injection in laser- and particle-beam driven wakefield accelerators is examined analytically and through full-scale particle-in-cell simulations. A magnetic field can relax the injection threshold and can be used to control main output beam features such as charge, energy, and transverse dynamics in the ion channel associated with the plasma blowout. It is shown that this mechanism could be studied using state-of-the-art magnetic fields in next generation plasma accelerator experiments.

Observation of synchrotron radiation from electrons accelerated in a petawatt-laser-generated plasma cavity

The dynamics of plasma electrons in the focus of a petawatt laser beam are studied via measurements of their x-ray synchrotron radiation. With increasing laser intensity, a forward directed beam of x rays extending to 50 keV is observed. The measured x rays are well described in the synchrotron asymptotic limit of electrons oscillating in a plasma channel. The critical energy of the measured synchrotron spectrum is found to scale as the Maxwellian temperature of the simultaneously measured electron spectra. At low laser intensity transverse oscillations are negligible as the electrons are predominantly accelerated axially by the laser generated wakefield. At high laser intensity, electrons are directly accelerated by the laser and enter a highly radiative regime with up to 5% of their energy converted into x rays.

Positron production by x rays emitted by betatron motion in a plasma wiggler

Positrons in the energy range of 3-30 MeV, produced by x rays emitted by betatron motion in a plasma wiggler of 28.5 GeV electrons from the SLAC accelerator, have been measured. The extremely high-strength plasma wiggler is an ion column induced by the electron beam as it propagates through and ionizes dense lithium vapor. X rays in the range of 1-50 MeV in a forward cone angle of 0.1 mrad collide with a 1.7 mm thick tungsten target to produce electron-positron pairs. The positron spectra are found to be strongly influenced by the plasma density and length as well as the electron bunch length. By characterizing the beam propagation in the ion column these influences are quantified and result in excellent agreement between the measured and calculated positron spectra.

Coherence-based transverse measurement of synchrotron x-ray radiation from relativistic laser-plasma interaction and laser-accelerated electrons

We observe Fresnel edge diffraction of the x-ray beam generated by the relativistic interaction of a high-intensity laser pulse with He gas. The observed diffraction at center energy 4.5 keV agrees with Gaussian incoherent source profile of full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) < 8 microm. Analysis indicates this corresponds to an upper limit on the transverse profile of laser-accelerated electrons within the plasma in agreement with three-dimensional, particle-in-cell results (FWHM = 4 microm).

X-ray generation in strongly nonlinear plasma waves

We show that a laser wake field in the "bubble" regime [Appl. Phys. B 74, 355 (2002)]], works as a compact high-brightness source of x-rays. The self-trapped relativistic electrons make betatron oscillations in the transverse fields of the bubble and emit a bright broadband x-ray radiation with a maximum about 50 keV. The emission is confined to a small angle of about 0.1 rad. In addition, we make simulations of x-ray generation by an external 28.5 GeV electron bunch injected into the bubble. gamma quanta with up to GeV energies are observed in the simulation in good agreement with analytical results. The energy conversion is efficient, leading to a significant stopping of the electron bunch over 5 mm interaction distance.

Synchrotron radiation from electron beams in plasma-focusing channels

Spontaneous radiation emitted from relativistic electrons undergoing betatron motion in a plasma-focusing channel is analyzed, and applications to plasma wake-field accelerator experiments and to the ion-channel laser (ICL) are discussed. Important similarities and differences between a free electron laser (FEL) and an ICL are delineated. It is shown that the frequency of spontaneous radiation is a strong function of the betatron strength parameter a(beta), which plays a role similar to that of the wiggler strength parameter in a conventional FEL. For a(beta) > or approximately 1, radiation is emitted in numerous harmonics. Furthermore, a(beta) is proportional to the amplitude of the betatron orbit, which varies for every electron in the beam. The radiation spectrum emitted from an electron beam is calculated by averaging the single-electron spectrum over the electron distribution. This leads to a frequency broadening of the radiation spectrum, which places serious limits on the possibility of realizing an ICL.

Quantum effects in high-gain free-electron lasers

A many-particle fully quantized theory for a free-electron laser which is valid in the high-gain regime is presented. We examine quantum corrections for the high-gain single-pass free-electron laser. It is shown that quantum effects become significant when the photon energy becomes comparable to the gain bandwidth. The initiation of the free-electron laser process from quantum fluctuations in the position and momentum of the electrons is considered, and the parameter regime for enhanced start-up is identified. Photon statistics of the free-electron laser radiation are discussed, and the photon number statistics for the self-amplified spontaneous emission are calculated.

Measurements of radiation near an atomic spectral line from the interaction of a 30 GeV electron beam and a long plasma

Emissions produced or initiated by a 30-GeV electron beam propagating through a approximately 1-m long heat pipe oven containing neutral and partially ionized vapor have been measured near atomic spectral lines in a beam-plasma wakefield experiment. The Cerenkov spatial profile has been studied as a function of oven temperature and pressure, observation wavelength, and ionizing laser intensity and delay. The Cerenkov peak angle is affected by the creation of plasma, and estimates of neutral and plasma density have been extracted. Increases in visible background radiation, consistent with increased plasma recombination emissions due to dissipation of wakefields, were simultaneously measured.