The Effect of Laser Focusing Conditions on Propagation and Monoenergetic Electron Production in Laser Wakefield Accelerators

The effect of laser focusing conditions on the evolution of relativistic plasma waves in laser wakefield accelerators is studied both experimentally and with particle-in-cell simulations. For short focal length (\(w_0 < \lambda_p\)) interactions, beam break-up prevents stable propagation of the p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2007-01
Main Authors: Thomas, A G R, Najmudin, Z, Mangles, S P D, Murphy, C D, Dangor, A E, Kamperidis, C, Lancaster, K L, Mori, W B, Norreys, P A, Rozmus, W, Krushelnick, K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electron beams
Lasers
Particle accelerators
Particle in cell technique
Plasma waves
Pulse propagation
Relativistic plasmas
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Summary:The effect of laser focusing conditions on the evolution of relativistic plasma waves in laser wakefield accelerators is studied both experimentally and with particle-in-cell simulations. For short focal length (\(w_0 < \lambda_p\)) interactions, beam break-up prevents stable propagation of the pulse. High field gradients lead to non-localized phase injection of electrons, and thus broad energy spread beams. However for long focal length geometries (\(w_0 > \lambda_p\)), a single optical filament can capture the majority of the laser energy, and self-guide over distances comparable to the dephasing length, even for these short-pulses (\(c\tau \approx \lambda_p\)). This allows the wakefield to evolve to the correct shape for the production of the monoenergetic electron bunches, as measured in the experiment.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.0701186