All-optical GeV electron bunch generation in a laser-plasma accelerator via truncated-channel injection

Abstract

We describe a simple scheme, truncated-channel injection, to inject electrons directly into the wakefield driven by a drive pulse guided by an all-optical plasma channel. We use this approach to generate dark-current-free 1.2 GeV, 4.5 % relative energy spread electron bunches with 120 TW laser pulses guided in a 110-mm-long hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized (HOFI) plasma channel. Our experiments and particle-in-cell simulations show that high-quality electron bunches were only obtained when the drive pulse was closely aligned with the channel axis, and was focused close to the density down-ramp formed at the channel entrance. Start-to-end simulations of the channel formation, and electron injection and acceleration show that increasing the channel length to 410 mm would yield 3.65 GeV bunches, with a slice energy spread $\sim 5\times 10^{-4}$.

References in corpus (17)

• All-optical Compton gamma-ray source
• A spectral, quasi-cylindrical and dispersion-free Particle-In-Cell algorithm
• Observation of longitudinal and transverse self-injections in laser-plasma accelerators
• Hydrodynamic, Optically-Field-Ionized (HOFI) Plasma Channels
• Optical guiding in meter-scale plasma waveguides
• A tunable plasma-based energy dechirper
• Low-Density Hydrodynamic Optical-Field-Ionized Plasma Channels Generated With An Axicon Lens
• Temporal evolution of longitudinal bunch profile in a laser wakefield accelerator
• Meter-Scale, Conditioned Hydrodynamic Optical-Field-Ionized Plasma Channels
• Accurate modeling of plasma acceleration with arbitrary order pseudo-spectral particle-in-cell methods
• Self-waveguiding of relativistic laser pulses in neutral gas channel
• Terawatt attosecond X-ray source driven by a plasma accelerator
• Stable and high quality electron beams from staged laser and plasma wakefield accelerators
• Stable discrete representation of relativistically drifting plasmas
• Guiding of high-intensity laser pulses in 100mm-long hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels
• Demonstration of kilohertz operation of Hydrodynamic Optical-Field-Ionized Plasma Channels
• Novel gas target for Laser Wakefield Accelerators

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Benchmarking of hydrodynamic plasma waveguides for multi-GeV laser-driven electron acceleration
• Measurement of directional muon beams generated at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator
• Quantum kinetic theory of light-matter interactions in degenerate plasmas
• Programmable Focal Elongation and Shaping of High-Intensity Laser Pulses using Adaptive Optics
• Resonant excitation of plasma waves in a plasma channel
• Quasi-monoenergetic multi-GeV electron acceleration in a plasma waveguide