Lu-Le Yu

Multichromatic narrow-energy-spread electron bunches from laser-wakefield acceleration with dual-color lasers.

A method based on laser wakefield acceleration with controlled ionization injection triggered by another frequency-tripled laser is proposed, which can produce electron bunches with low energy spread. As two color pulses copropagate in the background plasma, the peak amplitude of the combined laser field is modulated in time and space during the laser propagation due to the plasma dispersion. Ionization injection occurs when the peak amplitude exceeds a certain threshold. The threshold is exceeded for limited duration periodically at different propagation distances, leading to multiple ionization injections and separated electron bunches. The method is demonstrated through multidimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Such electron bunches may be used to generate multichromatic x-ray sources for a variety of applications.

Generation of tens of GeV quasi-monoenergetic proton beams from a moving double layer formed by ultraintense lasers at intensity 10 21 -10 23 Wcm 2

We present a scheme for proton acceleration from a moving double layer formed by an ultraintense circularly polarized laser pulse with intensity 10 21 -10 23 Wcm 2 irradiated on a combination target. The target is composed of a thin overdense proton-rich foil located at the front followed by an underdense gas region behind with an effective Z/A ratio of the order of 1/3. When the areal density of the thin foil is small enough, the protons together with electrons in the thin overdense foil can be pre-accelerated under the laser irradiation. As the laser pulse passes through the thin foil and propagates in the underdense gas region, it excites high-amplitude electrostatic fields moving at a high speed, which appear like a moving double layer. The pre-accelerated protons can get trapped and accelerated in the moving double layer and tens of GeV quasi-monoenergetic proton beams are achieved, provided the laser intensity and plasma density are properly chosen, as demonstrated by one-dimensional (1D) and 2D particle- in-cell (PIC) simulations.

Dense blocks of energetic ions driven by multi-petawatt lasers

Laser-driven ion accelerators have the advantages of compact size, high density, and short bunch duration over conventional accelerators. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to simultaneously enhance the yield and quality of laser-driven ion beams for practical applications. Here we propose a scheme to address this challenge via the use of emerging multi-petawatt lasers and a density-modulated target. The density-modulated target permits its ions to be uniformly accelerated as a dense block by laser radiation pressure. In addition, the beam quality of the accelerated ions is remarkably improved by embedding the target in a thick enough substrate, which suppresses hot electron refluxing and thus alleviates plasma heating. Particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that almost all ions in a solid-density plasma of a few microns can be uniformly accelerated to about 25% of the speed of light by a laser pulse at an intensity around 1022 W/cm2. The resulting dense block of energetic ions may drive fusion ignition and more generally create matter with unprecedented high energy density.

Acceleration and evolution of a hollow electron beam in wakefields driven by a Laguerre-Gaussian laser pulse

We show that a ring-shaped hollow electron beam can be injected and accelerated by using a Laguerre-Gaussian laser pulse and ionization-induced injection in a laser wakefield accelerator. The acceleration and evolution of such a hollow, relativistic electron beam are investigated through three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We find that both the ring size and the beam thickness oscillate during the acceleration. The beam azimuthal shape is angularly dependent and evolves during the acceleration. The beam ellipticity changes resulting from the electron angular momenta obtained from the drive laser pulse and the focusing forces from the wakefield. The dependence of beam ring radius on the laser-plasma parameters (e.g., laser intensity, focal size, and plasma density) is studied. Such a hollow electron beam may have potential applications for accelerating and collimating positively charged particles.

Plasma optical modulators for intense lasers

Optical modulators can have high modulation speed and broad bandwidth, while being compact. However, these optical modulators usually work for low-intensity light beams. Here we present an ultrafast, plasma-based optical modulator, which can directly modulate high-power lasers with intensity up to 1016 W cm−2 to produce an extremely broad spectrum with a fractional bandwidth over 100%, extending to the mid-infrared regime in the low-frequency side. This concept relies on two co-propagating laser pulses in a sub-millimetre-scale underdense plasma, where a drive laser pulse first excites an electron plasma wave in its wake while a following carrier laser pulse is modulated by the plasma wave. The laser and plasma parameters suitable for the modulator to work are based on numerical simulations.

A compact tunable polarized X-ray source based on laser-plasma helical undulators.

Laser wakefield accelerators have great potential as the basis for next generation compact radiation sources because of their extremely high accelerating gradients. However, X-ray radiation from such devices still lacks tunability, especially of the intensity and polarization distributions. Here we propose a tunable polarized radiation source based on a helical plasma undulator in a plasma channel guided wakefield accelerator. When a laser pulse is initially incident with a skew angle relative to the channel axis, the laser and accelerated electrons experience collective spiral motions, which leads to elliptically polarized synchrotron-like radiation with flexible tunability on radiation intensity, spectra and polarization. We demonstrate that a radiation source with millimeter size and peak brilliance of 2 × 1019 photons/s/mm2/mrad2/0.1% bandwidth can be made with moderate laser and electron beam parameters. This brilliance is comparable with third generation synchrotron radiation facilities running at similar photon energies, suggesting that laser plasma based radiation sources are promising for advanced applications.

Effects of large laser bandwidth on stimulated Raman scattering instability in underdense plasma

The effects of laser bandwidth on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) instability in underdense plasma are studied by particle-in-cell simulations. In the simulations, sinusoidal frequency modulation of the incident laser pulse is used. By changing the size of bandwidth, it is shown that the linear growth of SRS can be suppressed considerably, provided the laser bandwidth is much larger than the SRS linear growth rate. Simulations also show that by choosing the proper frequency modulation parameters or decreasing the linear growth rate of SRS, the inhibitory effects become more obvious. The plasma electron temperature tends to weaken the bandwidth effects especially when it is over a keV level. The laser bandwidth can only increase the time duration for linear growth but cannot diminish the instability completely.

Control of focusing fields for positron acceleration in nonlinear plasma wakes using multiple laser modes

Control of transverse wakefields in the nonlinear laser-driven bubble regime using a combination of Hermite-Gaussian laser modes is proposed. By controlling the relative intensity ratio of the two laser modes, the focusing force can be controlled, enabling matched beam propagation for emittance preservation. A ring bubble can be generated with a large longitudinal accelerating field and a transverse focusing field suitable for positron beam focusing and acceleration.

Extreme case of Faraday effect: magnetic splitting of ultrashort laser pulses in plasmas

The Faraday effect, caused by a magnetic-field-induced change in the optical properties, takes place in a vast variety of systems from a single atomic layer of graphenes to huge galaxies. Currently it plays a pivotal role in many applications such as the manipulation of light and the probing of magnetic fields and materials’ properties. Basically, this effect causes a polarization rotation of light during its propagation along the magnetic field in a medium. Here, we report an extreme case of the Faraday effect where a linearly polarized ultrashort laser pulse splits in time into two circularly polarized pulses of opposite handedness during its propagation in a highly magnetized plasma. This offers a new degree of freedom for manipulating ultrashort and ultrahigh-power laser pulses. Together with the technologies of ultra-strong magnetic fields, it may pave the way for novel optical devices such as magnetized plasma polarizers. In addition, it may offer a powerful means to measure strong magnetic fields in laser-produced plasmas.

Dynamics of boundary layer electrons around a laser wakefield bubble

The dynamics of electrons forming the boundary layer of a highly nonlinear laser wakefield driven in the so called bubble or blowout regime is investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that when the driver pulse intensity increases or the focal spot size decreases, a significant amount of electrons initially pushed by the laser pulse can detach from the bubble structure at its tail, middle, or front and form particular classes of waves locally with high densities, referred to as the tail wave, lateral wave, and bow wave. The tail wave and bow wave correspond to real electron trajectories, while the lateral wave does not. The detached electrons can be ejected transversely, containing considerable energy, and reducing the efficiency of the laser wakefield accelerator. Some of the transversely emitted electrons may obtain MeV level energy. These electrons can be used for wake evolution diagnosis and producing high frequency radiation.