Ultrafast Imaging of Laser Driven Shock Waves using Betatron X-rays from a Laser Wakefield Accelerator

Abstract

Betatron radiation from laser wakefield accelerators is an ultrashort pulsed source of hard, synchrotron-like x-ray radiation. It emanates from a centimetre scale plasma accelerator producing GeV level electron beams. In recent years betatron radiation has been developed as a unique source capable of producing high resolution x-ray images in compact geometries. However, until now, the short pulse nature of this radiation has not been exploited. This report details the first experiment to utilise betatron radiation to image a rapidly evolving phenomenon by using it to radiograph a laser driven shock wave in a silicon target. The spatial resolution of the image is comparable to what has been achieved in similar experiments at conventional synchrotron light sources. The intrinsic temporal resolution of betatron radiation is below 100 fs, indicating that significantly faster processes could be probed in future without compromising spatial resolution. Quantitative measurements of the shock velocity and material density were made from the radiographs recorded during shock compression and were consistent with the established shock response of silicon, as determined with traditional velocimetry approaches. This suggests that future compact betatron imaging beamlines could be useful in the imaging and diagnosis of high-energy-density physics experiments.

arXiv comment11 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Enhancement of electron energy to multi-GeV regime by a dual-stage laser-wakefield accelerator pumped by petawatt laser pulses
• Quantitative X-Ray Phase-Contrast Microtomography from a Compact Laser Driven Betatron Source
• Single shot phase contrast imaging using laser-produced Betatron x-ray beams
• Demonstration of the synchrotron-type spectrum of laser-produced Betatron radiation
• On the Properties of Plastic Ablators in Laser-Driven Material Dynamics Experiments
• Ab initio calculation of the shock Hugoniot of bulk silicon

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Dual-energy electron beams from a compact laser-driven accelerator
• Hard X-rays from laser-wakefield accelerators in density tailored plasmas
• Stable Positron Acceleration in Thin, Warm, Hollow Plasma Channels
• Bright betatron radiation from direct-laser-accelerated electrons at moderate relativistic laser intensity
• Predominant Contribution of Direct Laser Acceleration to High-Energy Electron Spectra in a Low-Density Self-Modulated Laser Wakefield Accelerator
• Nonlinear plasma wavelength scalings in a laser wakefield accelerator
• Positron acceleration in plasma waves driven by non-neutral fireball beams