Few-cycle microscopy of a laser wakefield accelerator

This thesis describes the development and first application of a novel diagnostic for a laser driven wakefield accelerator. It is termed Few‐Cycle Microscopy (FCM) and consists of a high-resolution imaging system and probe pulses with a duration of a few optical cycles synchronized to a high intensity laser pulse. Using FCM has opened a pristine view into the laser‐plasma interaction and has allowed to record high‐resolution images of the plasma wave in real time. Important stages during the wave’s evolution such as its formation, its breaking and finally the acceleration of electrons in the associated wake fields were observed in the experiment as well as in simulations, allowing for the first time a quantitative comparison between analytical and numerical models and experimental results. Using this diagnostic, the expansion of the wave’s first period, the so‐called ‘bubble’, was identified to be crucial for the injection of electrons into the wave. Furthermore, the shadowgrams taken with FCM in combination with interferograms and backscatter spectra have revealed a new acceleration regime when using hydrogen as the target gas. It was found that in this scheme electron pulses are generated with a higher charge, lower divergence and better pointing stability than with helium gas. The underlying pre‐heating process could be attributed to stimulated Raman scattering, which has been thought up till now to be negligible for short (t < 30 fs) laser pulses. However, as it is shown in this thesis, the interplay of the temporal intensity contrast of the laser pulse 1 ps before the peak of the pulse together with a sufficiently high plasma electron density can provide suitable conditions for this instability to grow, resulting in improved electron pulse parameters

Characterization and Application of Hard X-Ray Betatron Radiation Generated by Relativistic Electrons from a Laser-Wakefield Accelerator

The necessity for compact table-top x-ray sources with higher brightness, shorter wavelength and shorter pulse duration has led to the development of complementary sources based on laser-plasma accelerators, in contrast to conventional accelerators. Relativistic interaction of short-pulse lasers with underdense plasmas results in acceleration of electrons and in consequence in the emission of spatially coherent radiation, which is known in the literature as betatron radiation. In this article we report on our recent results in the rapidly developing field of secondary x-ray radiation generated by high-energy electron pulses. The betatron radiation is characterized with a novel setup allowing to measure the energy, the spatial energy distribution in the far-field of the beam and the source size in a single laser shot. Furthermore, the polarization state is measured for each laser shot. In this way the emitted betatron x-rays can be used as a non-invasive diagnostic tool to retrieve very subtle information of the electron dynamics within the plasma wave. Parallel to the experimental work, 3D particle-in-cell simulations were performed, proved to be in good agreement with the experimental results.Comment: 38 pages, 19 figures, submitted to the Journal of Plasma Physic

Observation of non-symmetric side-scattering during high-intensity laser-plasma interactions

Non-symmetric side-scattering has been observed during the interaction between a high-intensity laser pulse and under-dense argon plasma. The angle between the laser's forward direction and the scattered radiation is found to decrease for increasing electron densities ranging from 0.01 to 0.25n c , where n c is the critical density for the laser wavelength. We show that the observed features of the scattering cannot be described by Raman side-scattering but can be explained to be a consequence of the non-uniform density distribution of the plasma with the scattering angle being oriented along the direction of the resulting electron density gradient

Optical control of hard X-ray polarization by electron injection in a laser wakefield accelerator

Laser-plasma particle accelerators could provide more compact sources of high-energy radiation than conventional accelerators. Moreover, because they deliver radiation in femtosecond pulses, they could improve the time resolution of X-ray absorption techniques. Here we show that we can measure and control the polarization of ultra-short, broad-band keV photon pulses emitted from a laser-plasma-based betatron source. The electron trajectories and hence the polarization of the emitted X-rays are experimentally controlled by the pulse-front tilt of the driving laser pulses. Particle-in-cell simulations show that an asymmetric plasma wave can be driven by a tilted pulse front and a non-symmetric intensity distribution of the focal spot. Both lead to a notable off-axis electron injection followed by collective electron–betatron oscillations. We expect that our method for an all-optical steering is not only useful for plasma-based X-ray sources but also has significance for future laser-based particle accelerators