High quality electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator

TY - JOUR

T1 - High quality electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator

AU - Wiggins, S. M.

AU - Issac, R. C.

AU - Welsh, G. H.

AU - Brunetti, E.

AU - Shanks, R. P.

AU - Anania, M. P.

AU - Cipiccia, S.

AU - Manahan, G. G.

AU - Aniculaesei, C.

AU - Ersfeld, B.

AU - Islam, M. R.

AU - Burgess, R. T. L.

AU - Vieux, G.

AU - Gillespie, W. A.

AU - MacLeod, A. M.

AU - van der Geer, S. B.

AU - de Loos, M. J.

AU - Jaroszynski, D. A.

PY - 2010/12

Y1 - 2010/12

N2 - High quality electron beams have been produced in a laser-plasma accelerator driven by femtosecond laser pulses with a peak power of 26TW. Electrons are produced with an energy up to 150MeV from the 2mm gas jet accelerator and the measured rms relative energy spread is less than 1%. Shot-to-shot stability in the central energy is 3%. Pepper-pot measurements have shown that the normalized transverse emittance is similar to 1 pi mm mrad while the beam charge is in the range 2-10 pC. The generation of high quality electron beams is understood from simulations accounting for beam loading of the wakefield accelerating structure. Experiments and self-consistent simulations indicate that the beam peak current is several kiloamperes. Efficient transportation of the beam through an undulator is simulated and progress is being made towards the realization of a compact, high peak brilliance free-electron laser operating in the vacuum ultraviolet and soft x-ray wavelength ranges.

AB - High quality electron beams have been produced in a laser-plasma accelerator driven by femtosecond laser pulses with a peak power of 26TW. Electrons are produced with an energy up to 150MeV from the 2mm gas jet accelerator and the measured rms relative energy spread is less than 1%. Shot-to-shot stability in the central energy is 3%. Pepper-pot measurements have shown that the normalized transverse emittance is similar to 1 pi mm mrad while the beam charge is in the range 2-10 pC. The generation of high quality electron beams is understood from simulations accounting for beam loading of the wakefield accelerating structure. Experiments and self-consistent simulations indicate that the beam peak current is several kiloamperes. Efficient transportation of the beam through an undulator is simulated and progress is being made towards the realization of a compact, high peak brilliance free-electron laser operating in the vacuum ultraviolet and soft x-ray wavelength ranges.

KW - DRIVEN

U2 - 10.1088/0741-3335/52/12/124032

DO - 10.1088/0741-3335/52/12/124032

M3 - Article

SN - 0741-3335

VL - 52

SP - -

JO - Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

JF - Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

IS - 12

M1 - 124032

ER -