A. J. Gonsalves

Multistage coupling of independent laser-plasma accelerators

Laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) are capable of accelerating charged particles to very high energies in very compact structures. In theory, therefore, they offer advantages over conventional, large-scale particle accelerators. However, the energy gain in a single-stage LPA can be limited by laser diffraction, dephasing, electron-beam loading and laser-energy depletion. The problem of laser diffraction can be addressed by using laser-pulse guiding and preformed plasma waveguides to maintain the required laser intensity over distances of many Rayleigh lengths; dephasing can be mitigated by longitudinal tailoring of the plasma density; and beam loading can be controlled by proper shaping of the electron beam. To increase the beam energy further, it is necessary to tackle the problem of the depletion of laser energy, by sequencing the accelerator into stages, each powered by a separate laser pulse. Here, we present results from an experiment that demonstrates such staging. Two LPA stages were coupled over a short distance (as is needed to preserve the average acceleration gradient) by a plasma mirror. Stable electron beams from a first LPA were focused to a twenty-micrometre radius—by a discharge capillary-based active plasma lens—into a second LPA, such that the beams interacted with the wakefield excited by a separate laser. Staged acceleration by the wakefield of the second stage is detected via an energy gain of 100 megaelectronvolts for a subset of the electron beam. Changing the arrival time of the electron beam with respect to the second-stage laser pulse allowed us to reconstruct the temporal wakefield structure and to determine the plasma density. Our results indicate that the fundamental limitation to energy gain presented by laser depletion can be overcome by using staged acceleration, suggesting a way of reaching the electron energies required for collider applications.

Active Plasma Lensing for Relativistic Laser-Plasma-Accelerated Electron Beams

Compact, tunable, radially symmetric focusing of electrons is critical to laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) applications. Experiments are presented demonstrating the use of a discharge-capillary active plasma lens to focus 100-MeV-level LPA beams. The lens can provide tunable field gradients in excess of 3000 T/m, enabling cm-scale focal lengths for GeV-level beam energies and allowing LPA-based electron beams and light sources to maintain their compact footprint. For a range of lens strengths, excellent agreement with simulation was obtained.

Generation and pointing stabilization of multi-GeV electron beams from a laser plasma accelerator driven in a pre-formed plasma waveguidea)

Laser pulses with peak power 0.3 PW were used to generate electron beams with energy >4 GeV within a 9 cm-long capillary discharge waveguide operated with a plasma density of ≈7×1017 cm−3. Simulations showed that the super-Gaussian near-field laser profile that is typical of high-power femtosecond laser systems reduces the efficacy of guiding in parabolic plasma channels compared with the Gaussian laser pulses that are typically simulated. In the experiments, this was mitigated by increasing the plasma density and hence the contribution of self-guiding. This allowed for the generation of multi-GeV electron beams, but these had angular fluctuation ≳2 mrad rms. Mitigation of capillary damage and more accurate alignment allowed for stable beams to be produced with energy 2.7±0.1 GeV. The pointing fluctuation was 0.6 mrad rms, which was less than the beam divergence of ≲1 mrad full-width-half-maximum.

Laser red shifting based characterization of wakefield excitation in a laser-plasma accelerator

Optical spectra of a drive laser exiting a channel guided laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) are analyzed through experiments and simulations to infer the magnitude of the excited wakefields. The experiments are performed at sufficiently low intensity levels and plasma densities to avoid electron beam generation via self-trapping. Spectral redshifting of the laser light is studied as an indicator of the efficiency of laser energy transfer into the plasma through the generation of coherent plasma wakefields. Influences of input laser energy, plasma density, temporal and spatial laser profiles, and laser focal location in a plasma channel are analyzed. Energy transfer is found to be sensitive to details of laser pulse shape and focal location. The experimental conditions for these critical parameters are modeled and included in particle-in-cell simulations. Simulations reproduce the redshift of the laser within uncertainties of the experiments and produce an estimate of the wake amplitudes in the experiments as...

Plasma channel diagnostic based on laser centroid oscillations

A technique has been developed for measuring the properties of discharge-based plasma channels by monitoring the centroid location of a laser beam exiting the channel as a function of input alignment offset between the laser and the channel. Experiments were performed using low-intensity (<1014 W cm−2) laser pulses focused onto the entrance of a hydrogen-filled capillary discharge waveguide. Scanning the laser centroid position at the input of the channel and recording the exit position allow determination of the channel depth with an accuracy of a few percent, measurement of the transverse channel shape, and inference of the matched spot size. In addition, accurate alignment of the laser beam through the plasma channel is provided by minimizing laser centroid motion at the channel exit as the channel depth is scanned either by scanning the plasma density or the discharge timing. The improvement in alignment accuracy provided by this technique will be crucial for minimizing electron beam pointing errors i...

Demonstration of a high repetition rate capillary discharge waveguide

A hydrogen-filled capillary discharge waveguide operating at kHz repetition rates is presented for parameters relevant to laser plasma acceleration (LPA). The discharge current pulse was optimized for erosion mitigation with laser guiding experiments and MHD simulation. Heat flow simulations and measurements showed modest temperature rise at the capillary wall due to the average heat load at kHz repetition rates with water-cooled capillaries, which is promising for applications of LPAs such as high average power radiation sources.

Demonstration of a plasma mirror based on a laminar flow water film

A plasma mirror based on a laminar water film with low flow speed (0.5–2 cm/s) has been developed and characterized, for use as an ultrahigh intensity optical reflector. The use of flowing water as a target surface automatically results in each laser pulse seeing a new interaction surface and avoids the need for mechanical scanning of the target surface. In addition, the breakdown of water does not produce contaminating debris that can be deleterious to vacuum chamber conditions and optics, such as is the case when using conventional solid targets. The mirror exhibits 70% reflectivity, while maintaining high-quality of the reflected spot.

Staging of laser-plasma accelerators

We present results of an experiment where two laser-plasma-accelerator stages are coupled at a short distance by a plasma mirror. Stable electron beams from the first stage were used to longitudinally probe the dark-current-free, quasi-linear wakefield excited by the laser of the second stage. Changing the arrival time of the electron beam with respect to the second stage laser pulse allowed reconstruction of the temporal wakefield structure, determination of the plasma density, and inference of the length of the electron beam. The first stage electron beam could be focused by an active plasma lens to a spot size smaller than the transverse wake size at the entrance of the second stage. This permitted electron beam trapping, verified by a 100 MeV energy gain.

Plasma equilibrium inside various cross-section capillary discharges

Plasma properties inside a hydrogen-filled capillary discharge waveguide were modeled with dissipative magnetohydrodynamic simulations to enable analysis of capillaries of circular and square cross-sections implying that square capillaries can be used to guide circularly symmetric laser beams. When the quasistationary stage of the discharge is reached, the plasma and temperature in the vicinity of the capillary axis have almost the same profile for both the circular and square capillaries. The effect of cross-section on the electron beam focusing properties was studied using the simulation-derived magnetic field map. Particle tracking simulations showed only slight effects on the electron beam symmetry in the horizontal and diagonal directions for square capillary.

Plasma density diagnostic for capillary-discharge based plasma channels

The plasma density in discharged laser guiding structures, of order 1018 cm−3, is critical to laser-plasma accelerators. Here, we demonstrate a technique that uses spectral interferometry to measure the on-axis laser group velocity (and thus density) in cm-scale cylindrical hydrogen-discharge plasma channels by using laser pulses with a Gaussian transverse profile. Experimental density retrieval over a range of capillary parameters (density, length, and diameter) is presented. The accuracy (of order 8×1016 cm−3) and shot-to-shot stability (of order 2×1016 cm−3) of the diagnostic are discussed.