While laser-plasma accelerators have demonstrated a strong potential in the
acceleration of electrons up to giga-electronvolt energies, few experimental
tools for studying the acceleration physics have been developed. In this paper,
we demonstrate a method for probing the acceleration process. A second laser
beam, propagating perpendicular to the main beam is focused in the gas jet few
nanosecond before the main beam creates the accelerating plasma wave. This
second beam is intense enough to ionize the gas and form a density depletion
which will locally inhibit the acceleration. The position of the density
depletion is scanned along the interaction length to probe the electron
injection and acceleration, and the betatron X-ray emission. To illustrate the
potential of the method, the variation of the injection position with the
plasma density is studied
