High-Intensity Laser Evolution and Multi-GeV Electron Acceleration in Dark-Current-Free Laser Plasma Accelerators
ORAL
Abstract
Future applications of laser-plasma accelerators will require one or more stages providing multi-GeV energy gain. To reach multi-GeV energies in a single accelerator stage, the high-intensity drive laser pulse must be kept focused over several tens of centimeters through a sufficiently low-density (10^17 cm^-3) plasma. Without an external guiding mechanism, the laser will diffract reducing the laser intensity, which in turn limits acceleration to ~ 1 cm. Recently, hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized (HOFI) plasma channels [1-3] have gained attention because i) they produce tightly confined channels for n_0 ~ 10^17 cm^-3, and ii) contain no external structure making them ideal for > kHz operation. We demonstrate experimentally high intensity laser evolution in 30-cm-long HOFI plasma channels at the BELLA PW laser. We demonstrate conditions under which the channel can be tailored to match the drive laser focus in multi-GeV stages. Through controlled electron injection, we present example electron beams with single, quasimonoenegertic peaks up to 9.2 GeV and charge extending beyond 10 GeV.
[1] R. Shalloo et al., Phys. Rev. E (2018)
[2] A. Picksley et al., Phys. Rev. E (2020)
[3] L. Feder et al., Phys. Rev. Research (2020)
*This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC02-05CH11231. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics, and National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D).
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Presenters
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Alex Picksley
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory