Jessica Shaw

Role of direct laser acceleration in energy gained by electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator with ionization injection

We have investigated the role that the transverse electric field of the laser plays in the acceleration of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator operating in the quasi-blowout regime through particle-in-cell code simulations. In order to ensure that longitudinal compression and/or transverse focusing of the laser pulse is not needed before the wake can self-trap the plasma electrons, we have employed the ionization injection technique. Furthermore, the plasma density is varied such that at the lowest densities, the laser pulse occupies only a fraction of the first wavelength of the wake oscillation (the accelerating bucket), whereas at the highest density, the same duration laser pulse fills the entire first bucket. Although the trapped electrons execute betatron oscillations due to the ion column in all cases, at the lowest plasma density they do not interact with the laser field and the energy gain is all due to the longitudinal wakefield. However, as the density is increased, there can be a significant contribution to the maximum energy due to direct laser acceleration (DLA) of those electrons that undergo betatron motion in the plane of the polarization of the laser pulse. Eventually, DLA can be the dominant energy gain mechanism over acceleration due to the longitudinal field at the highest densities.

Self-modulated laser wakefield accelerators as x-ray sources

The development of a directional, small-divergence, and short-duration picosecond x-ray probe beam with an energy greater than 50 keV is desirable for high energy density science experiments. We therefore explore through particle-in-cell (PIC) computer simulations the possibility of using x-rays radiated by betatron-like motion of electrons from a self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator as a possible candidate to meet this need. Two OSIRIS 2D PIC simulations with mobile ions are presented, one with a normalized vector potential a0 = 1.5 and the other with an a0 = 3. We find that in both cases direct laser acceleration (DLA) is an important additional acceleration mechanism in addition to the longitudinal electric field of the plasma wave. Together these mechanisms produce electrons with a continuous energy spectrum with a maximum energy of 300 MeV for a0 = 3 case and 180 MeV in the a0 = 1.5 case. Forward-directed x-ray radiation with a photon energy up to 100 keV was calculated for the a0 = 3 case and up to 12 keV for the a0 = 1.5 case. The x-ray spectrum can be fitted with a sum of two synchrotron spectra with critical photon energy of 13 and 45 keV for the a0 of 3 and critical photon energy of 0.3 and 1.4 keV for a0 of 1.5 in the plane of polarization of the laser. The full width at half maximum divergence angle of the x-rays was 62 x 1.9 mrad for a0 = 3 and 77 x 3.8 mrad for a0 = 1.5.

Estimation of direct laser acceleration in laser wakefield accelerators using particle-in-cell simulations

Many current laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) experiments are carried out in a regime where the laser pulse length is on the order of or longer than the wake wavelength and where ionization injection is employed to inject electrons into the wake. In these experiments, the trapped electrons will co-propagate with the longitudinal wakefield and the transverse laser field. In this scenario, the electrons can gain a significant amount of energy from both the direct laser acceleration (DLA) mechanism as well as the usual LWFA mechanism. Particle-in-cell (PIC) codes are frequently used to discern the relative contribution of these two mechanisms. However, if the longitudinal resolution used in the PIC simulations is inadequate, it can produce numerical heating that can overestimate the transverse motion, which is important in determining the energy gain due to DLA. We have therefore carried out a systematic study of this LWFA regime by varying the longitudinal resolution of PIC simulations from the standard, best-practice resolution of 30 points per laser wavelength to four times that value and then examining the energy gain characteristics of both the highest-energy electrons and the bulk electrons. By calculating the contribution of DLA to the final energies of the electrons produced from the LWFA, we find that although the transverse momentum and oscillation radii are over-estimated in the lower-resolution simulations, this over-estimation does not lead to artificial energy gain by DLA. Rather, the DLA contribution to the highest-energy electrons is larger in the higher-resolution cases because the DLA resonance is better maintained. Thus, even at the highest longitudinal resolutions, DLA contributes a significant portion of the energy gained by the highest-energy electrons and also contributes to accelerating the bulk of the charge in the electron beam produced by the LWFA.

Role of Direct Laser Acceleration of Electrons in a Laser Wakefield Accelerator with Ionization Injection

We show the first experimental demonstration that electrons being accelerated in a laser wakefield accelerator operating in the forced or blowout regimes gain significant energy from both the direct laser acceleration (DLA) and the laser wakefield acceleration mechanisms. Supporting full-scale 3D particle-in-cell simulations elucidate the role of the DLA of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator when ionization injection of electrons is employed. An explanation is given for how electrons can maintain the DLA resonance condition in a laser wakefield accelerator despite the evolving properties of both the drive laser and the electrons. The produced electron beams exhibit characteristic features that are indicative of DLA as an additional acceleration mechanism.

Measuring the angular dependence of betatron x-ray spectra in a laser-wakefield accelerator

This paper presents a new technique to measure the angular dependence of betatron x-ray spectra in a laser-wakefield accelerator. Measurements are performed with a stacked image plates spectrometer, capable of detecting broadband x-ray radiation up to 1 MeV. It can provide measurements of the betatron x-ray spectrum at any angle of observation (within a 40 mrad cone) and of the beam profile. A detailed description of our data analysis is given, along with comparison for several shots. These measurements provide useful information on the dynamics of the electrons are they are accelerated and wiggled by the wakefield.

High throughput on-chip analysis of high-energy charged particle tracks using lensfree imaging

We demonstrate a high-throughput charged particle analysis platform, which is based on lensfree on-chip microscopy for rapid ion track analysis using allyl diglycol carbonate, i.e., CR-39 plastic polymer as the sensing medium. By adopting a wide-area opto-electronic image sensor together with a source-shifting based pixel super-resolution technique, a large CR-39 sample volume (i.e., 4 cm × 4 cm × 0.1 cm) can be imaged in less than 1 min using a compact lensfree on-chip microscope, which detects partially coherent in-line holograms of the ion tracks recorded within the CR-39 detector. After the image capture, using highly parallelized reconstruction and ion track analysis algorithms running on graphics processing units, we reconstruct and analyze the entire volume of a CR-39 detector within ∼1.5 min. This significant reduction in the entire imaging and ion track analysis time not only increases our throughput but also allows us to perform time-resolved analysis of the etching process to monitor and optimize the growth of ion tracks during etching. This computational lensfree imaging platform can provide a much higher throughput and more cost-effective alternative to traditional lens-based scanning optical microscopes for ion track analysis using CR-39 and other passive high energy particle detectors.

Meter scale plasma source for plasma wakefield experiments

High accelerating gradients generated by a high density electron beam moving through plasma has been used to double the energy of the SLAC electron beam [1]. During that experiment, the electron current density was high enough to generate its own plasma without significant head erosion. In the newly commissioned FACET facility at SLAC, the peak current will be lower and without pre-ionization, head erosion will be a significant challenge for the planned experiments. In this work we report on our design of a meter scale plasma source for these experiments to effectively avoid the problem of head erosion. The plasma source is based on a homogeneous metal vapor gas column that is generated in a heat pipe oven [2]. A lithium oven over 30 cm long at densities over 1017 cm−3 has been constructed and tested at UCLA. The plasma is then generated by coupling a 10 TW short pulse Ti:Sapphire laser into the gas column using an axicon lens setup. The Bessel profile of the axicon setup creates a region of high intensit...

100 MeV Injector Cell for a Staged Laser Wakefield Accelerator

A 100 MeV electron laser wakefield injector based on a sub-millimeter gas cell is presented. The gas cell, used mainly to overcome the density inhomogeneity associated with gas jets, is capable of yielding a homogeneous plasma source with densities less than 2 × 1019 cm−3. Sharp step plasma density boundaries were obtained by using the laser to drill the gas cell pinholes as small as 100 μm in diameter. The gas cell lengths were comparable to the dephasing length. The gas cell length and density were varied to study electron bunch characteristics. The UCLA 10 TW Ti:Sapphire laser was focused into the gas cell where helium and hydrogen were used as target gases with a few percent nitrogen impurity added to induce ionization trapping of the electrons [1]. The observed electron beams had divergences less than 2 mR. A model for producing low divergence beams is presented.

Satisfying the Direct Laser Acceleration Resonance Condition in a Laser Wakefield Accelerator

In this proceeding we show that when the drive laser pulse overlaps the trapped electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA), those electrons can gain energy from direct laser acceleration (DLA) over extended distances despite the evolution of both the laser and the wake. Through simulations, the evolution of the properties of both the laser and the electron beam is quantified, and then the resonance condition for DLA is examined in the context of this change. We find that although the electrons produced from the LWFA cannot continuously satisfy the DLA resonance condition, they nevertheless can gain a significant amount of energy from DLA.

Betatron x-ray production in mixed gases

Betatron x-rays with multi-keV photon energies have been observed from a GeV-class laser-plasma accelerator. The experiment was performed using the 200 TW Callisto laser system at LLNL to produce and simultaneously observe GeV-class electron beams and keV Betatron x-rays. The laser was focused with two different optics (f/8 and f/20), and into various gas cells with sizes ranging from 3 to 10 mm, and containing mixed gases (He, N, CO2, Ar, Ne) to accelerate large amounts of charge in the ionization induced trapping regime. KeV betatron x-rays were observed for various concentrations of gases. Electron spectra were measured on large image plates with the two-screen method after being deflected by a large 0.42 Tesla magnet spectrometer. Betatron oscillations observed on the electron spectra can be benchmarked against a simple analytical model (Runge-Kutta algorithm solving the equation of motion of an electron in the wakefield), in order to retrieve the electron injection conditions into the wake.