Extremely intense laser-based electron acceleration in a plasma channel

Abstract

Laser pulses of extreme intensities ($I>10^{22}W/c{\mathrm{m}}^2$) are about to become available in the laboratory. The prepulse of such a laser can induce a plasma expansion that generates a low-density channel in near-critical gas jets. We present a study of channel formation and subsequent direct laser acceleration of electrons within the pre-formed channel. Radiation reaction affects the acceleration in several ways. It first interferes with the motion of the return current on the channel walls. In addition, it reduces the radial expelling efficiency of the transverse ponderomotive force, leading to the radiative trapping of particles near the channel axis. These particles then interact with the peak laser intensity and can attain multi-GeV energies.

17 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (12)

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Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Relativistic Plasma Physics in Supercritical Fields
• Collimated gamma-ray beams from structured laser-irradiated targets -- how to increase the efficiency without increasing the laser intensity
• Relativistic laser driven electron accelerator using micro-channel plasma targets
• Direct laser acceleration in underdense plasmas with multi-PW lasers: a path to high-charge, GeV-class electron bunches
• Scaling laws for direct laser acceleration in a radiation-reaction dominated regime
• Creation and direct laser acceleration of positrons in a single stage
• Single-cycle attosecond pulses by Thomson backscattering of terahertz pulses
• Impact of ion dynamics on laser-driven electron acceleration and gamma-ray emission in structured targets at ultra-high laser intensities
• Electron acceleration in direct laser-solid interactions far beyond the ponderomotive limit
• Direct laser acceleration: A model for the electron injection from the walls of a cylindrical guiding structure
• Direct laser acceleration in varying plasma density profiles
• The role of standing wave in the generation of hot electrons by femtosecond laser beams incident on dense ionized target
• Creating QED Photon Jets with Present-Day Lasers
• High brilliance $\gamma$-ray generation from the laser interaction in a carbon plasma channel