Generation of attosecond electron bunches in a laser-plasma accelerator using a plasma density upramp

Attosecond electron bunches and attosecond radiation pulses enable the study of ultrafast dynamics of matter in an unprecedented regime. In this paper, the suitability for the experimental realization of a novel scheme producing sub-femtosecond duration electron bunches from laser-wakefield acceleration in plasma with self-injection in a plasma upramp profile has been investigated. While it has previously been predicted that this requires laser power above a few hundred terawatts typically, here we show that the scheme can be extended with reduced driving laser powers down to tens of terawatts, generating accelerated electron pulses with minimum length of around 166. attoseconds and picocoulombs charge. Using particle-in-cell simulations and theoretical models, the evolution of the accelerated electron bunch within the plasma as well as simple scalings of the bunch properties with initial laser and plasma parameters are presented

Criss-crossing Laser Beams Zoom Electrons Along

Crossing two high-intensity laser beams in a plasma (a collection of charged particles) can have some interesting effects. In a recent experiment performed by researchers at the University of Michigan and the Institute of Physics in China, energy from a higher-power laser pulse was transferred to a lower-power laser pulse. The lower-power pulse had been accelerating electrons with its wakefield (like a wave accelerating a surfer). The extra energy to this lower-power pulse enhanced the electron acceleration and decreased the divergence of the electron beam. These features are desirable for proposed laser particle accelerators that would be powered by relatively inexpensive and convenient laser light, which is much more powerful than conventional radio-frequency waves

The topological AC effect on noncommutative phase space

The Aharonov-Casher (AC) effect in non-commutative(NC) quantum mechanics is studied. Instead of using the star product method, we use a generalization of Bopp's shift method. After solving the Dirac equations both on noncommutative space and noncommutative phase space by the new method, we obtain the corrections to AC phase on NC space and NC phase space respectively.Comment: 8 pages, Latex fil

Single-stage plasma-based correlated energy spread compensation for ultrahigh 6D brightness electron beams

Plasma photocathode wakefield acceleration combines energy gains of tens of GeV m−1 with generation of ultralow emittance electron bunches, and opens a path towards 5D-brightness orders of magnitude larger than state-of-the-art. This holds great promise for compact accelerator building blocks and advanced light sources. However, an intrinsic by-product of the enormous electric field gradients inherent to plasma accelerators is substantial correlated energy spread—an obstacle for key applications such as free-electron-lasers. Here we show that by releasing an additional tailored escort electron beam at a later phase of the acceleration, when the witness bunch is relativistically stable, the plasma wave can be locally overloaded without compromising the witness bunch normalized emittance. This reverses the effective accelerating gradient, and counter-rotates the accumulated negative longitudinal phase space chirp of the witness bunch. Thereby, the energy spread is reduced by an order of magnitude, thus enabling the production of ultrahigh 6D-brightness beams

Three electron beams from a laser-plasma wakefield accelerator and the energy apportioning question

Laser-wakefield accelerators are compact devices capable of delivering ultra-short electron bunches with pC-level charge and MeV-GeV energy by exploiting the ultra-high electric fields arising from the interaction of intense laser pulses with plasma. We show experimentally and through numerical simulations that a high-energy electron beam is produced simultaneously with two stable lower-energy beams that are ejected in oblique and counter-propagating directions, typically carrying off 5-10% of the initial laser energy. A MeV, 10s nC oblique beam is ejected in a 30-60 degree hollow cone, which is filled with more energetic electrons determined by the injection dynamics. A nC-level, 100s keV backward-directed beam is mainly produced at the leading edge of the plasma column. We discuss the apportioning of absorbed laser energy amongst the three beams. Knowledge of the distribution of laser energy and electron beam charge, which determine the overall efficiency, is important for various applications of laser-wakefield accelerators, including the development of staged high-energy accelerators

Wide-angle electron beams from laser-wakefield accelerators

Advances in laser technology have driven the development of laser-wakefield accelerators, compact devices that are capable of accelerating electrons to GeV energies over centimetre distances by exploiting the strong electric field gradients arising from the interaction of intense laser pulses with an underdense plasma. A side-effect of this acceleration mechanism is the production of high-charge, low-energy electron beams at wide angles. Here we present an experimental and numerical study of the properties of these wide-angle electron beams, and show that they carry off a significant fraction of the energy transferred from the laser to the plasma. These high-charge, wide-angle beams can also cause damage to laser-wakefield accelerators based on capillaries, as well as become source of unwanted bremsstrahlung radiation

Collimation of high current fast electrons in dense plasmas with a tightly focused precursor intense laser pulse

High-current fast electrons at the mega-ampere level provide a unique way to generate high-energy density states of matter, which are related to many applications. However, the large divergence angle of fast electrons typically over 50 degrees is a significant disadvantage. The guiding effect of the self-generated azimuthal magnetic fields on fast electron current is found to be very limited due to the cone-shaped spatial structure of the fields. In this work, we present a new understanding of the collimation conditions of fast electrons under such a magnetic field structure. It is shown that the transverse peak position of the magnetic field layer plays a more crucial role in collimating the fast electrons than its magnitude. Based upon this, a new two-pulse collimating scheme is proposed, where a guiding precursor pulse is adopted to form proper azimuthal magnetic fields and the main pulse is for fast electron generation as usual. The present scheme can be implemented relatively easily with the precursor lasers at the 10 TW level with a duration of 200 femtoseconds, with which the divergence angle of fast electrons driven by the main pulse can be confined within a few degrees. Practical applications of our scheme can be found in high-energy density science

Controllable Laser Ion Acceleration

In this paper a future laser ion accelerator is discussed to make the laser-based ion accelerator compact and controllable. Especially a collimation device is focused in this paper. The future laser ion accelerator should have an ion source, ion collimators, ion beam bunchers, and ion post acceleration devices [Laser Therapy 22, 103(2013)]: the ion particle energy and the ion energy spectrum are controlled to meet requirements for a future compact laser ion accelerator for ion cancer therapy or for other purposes. The energy efficiency from the laser to ions is improved by using a solid target with a fine sub-wavelength structure or a near-critical density gas plasma. The ion beam collimation is performed by holes behind the solid target or a multi-layered solid target. The control of the ion energy spectrum and the ion particle energy, and the ion beam bunching would be successfully realized by a multistage laser-target interaction

Directed fast electron beams in ultraintense picosecond laser irradiated solid targets

We report on fast electron transport and emission patterns from solid targets irradiated by s-polarized, relativistically intense, picosecond laser pulses. A beam of multi-MeV electrons is found to be transported along the target surface in the laser polarization direction. The spatial-intensity and energy distributions of this beam are compared with the beam produced along the laser propagation axis. It is shown that even for peak laser intensities an order of magnitude higher than the relativistic threshold; laser polarization still plays an important role in electron energy transport. Results from 3D particle-in-cell simulations confirm the findings. The characterization of directional beam emission is important for applications requiring efficient energy transfer, including secondary photon and ion source development