Experimental investigation of interactions of long CO$_2$ laser pulse with plasma at ATF

ORAL

Abstract

Laser wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) can sustain accelerating gradients that greatly surpass those of conventional accelerators. Long ($\sim$ps) and intense ($>$TW) laser pulses have been employed in LWFAs to generate bright, hard X-rays which are of interest for imaging and diagnosing warm-dense matter. The CO$_2$ laser at the ATF facility of the Brookhaven National Laboratory is a unique source, which can generate $~$2 ps-long, multi-TW laser pulses in the mid-IR (9.2 $\mu$m) regime. The properties of the laser-plasma interactions were characterized by imaging the plasma wakefields with the linac-produced short (150-250 fs) relativistic electron beam at ATF. The evolution of a self-modulated laser wake in an underdense plasma has been directly observed and analyzed. Experimental results as well as simulations exploring the properties of this regime will be presented.

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Authors

  • Irina Petrushina

    • Stony Brook University
    • State University of New York at Stony Brook

  • Rafal Zgadzaj

    • University of Texas at Austin
    • University of Texas, Austin

  • Prabhjot Kaur

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Igor Pogorelsky

    • Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Marcus Babzien

    • Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Mikhail Fedurin

    • Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Rotem Kupfer

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Karl Kusche

    • Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Mikhail Polyanskiy

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Mark Palmer

    • Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Prabhat Kumar

    • Stony Brook University
    • State University of New York at Stony Brook

  • Roman Samulyak

    • State University of New York at Stony Brook
    • Stony Brook University

  • James Welch

    • University of Texas at Austin

  • Kyle Miller

    • University of California Los Angeles
    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • Dept. of Physics University of Californial Los Angeles
    • UCLA

  • Chaojie Zhang

    • University of California Los Angeles

  • Warren Mori

    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • University of California Los Angeles
    • Departments of Physics and Astronomy & Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles
    • UCLA

  • Michael Downer

    • University of Texas at Austin
    • University of Texas, Austin

  • Chan Joshi

    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • University of California Los Angeles

  • Vladimir Litvinenko

    • State University of New York at Stony Brook

  • Navid Vafaei-Najafabadi

    • Stony Brook University
    • State University of New York at Stony Brook