Compact Radiation Sources from the BELLA Center's Laser-Plasma Accelerators
ORAL · Invited
Abstract
The BELLA Center at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, operates several Laser Plasma Accelerator (LPA) facilities aimed at generating unique, compact particle and radiation sources. In this presentation, I will highlight recent results on high-energy (10 GeV) electron acceleration from 30 cm plasma channels, the production of directional multi-GeV muons for muography, and radiation production at UV / X-ray photon energies from the Free Electron Laser (FEL) mechanism (coherent undulator radiation), from betatron oscillations during plasma wakefield acceleration, and from laser-electron Thomson scattering. The FEL radiation in particular is a key indicator that the LPA electron beams have the high quality (brightness, low-emittance, peak current) to drive unique radiation sources. The femtosecond duration, the micron-scale point source size, and high peak flux, make the LPA particles and photons ripe for applications. Current and near-term applications will be discussed.
*This work was supported by the Office of Science of High Energy Physics (HEP) and Basic Energy Sciences (BES) under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), by the U.S. DOE National Nuclear Security Administration Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation R&D (NA-22), and through a collaborative grant from TAU Systems Inc.
–
Presenters
-
Jeroen Van Tilborg
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory