Sustainable High Repetition Rate Plasma Mirrors for Petawatt Lasers

ORAL

Abstract

Free standing liquid crystal films have shown utility as moderate repetition rate plasma mirrors in ultra-high intensity laser matter interactions (Poole et al., Scientific Reports 6, 32041 (2016)). We report the results of a test of film durability in the BELLA gas capillary electron acceleration environment (Leemans, et al., PRL 113, 245002 (2014)). It was found that films as thin as 10 nm can withstand blow-out plasma 6 cm from the capillary discharge as well as the peak of a nanosecond laser pulse with a fluence of ~400 J/cm2 used for heating. These results inform the suitability of liquid crystal films for short laser pulse redirection in wakefield electron accelerators. A new high repetition rate device (> 1 Hz) is described for inserting 10-30 nm thick plasma mirrors with low weak field reflectivity, good film uniformity, flatness, pointing, and low cost. The design innovations necessary to achieve this performance are described.

*This work was supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) under DE-SC0018192 and DE-AC02-05CH11231 and the National Science Foundation (NSF) under PHY-1632796. JHB acknowledges financial support from the Humboldt foundation.

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Presenters

  • Anthony Zingale

    • Ohio State Univ - Columbus

Authors

  • Anthony Zingale

    • Ohio State Univ - Columbus

  • Sven Steinke

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Jianhui Bin

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • G. E. Cochran

    • Ohio State Univ - Columbus
    • The Ohio State University

  • Christopher V Pieronek

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, University of California-Berkeley, USA
    • Univ of California - Berkeley

  • Jeroen van Tilborg

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab
    • LBNL

  • Fumika Isono

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab
    • LBNL, UC Berkeley
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Univ of California - Berkeley

  • Sam K Barber

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Nicholas Czapla

    • Ohio State Univ - Columbus

  • Jordan Purcell

    • Ohio State Univ - Columbus

  • P. L. Poole

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Wim Pieter Leemans

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, U.C. Berkeley
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Univ of California - Berkeley
    • LBNL, UC Berkeley

  • D. W. Schumacher

    • Ohio State Univ - Columbus
    • Ohio State University
    • The Ohio State University