Physical Review Accelerators and Beams (May 2022)

Plasma photonic spatiotemporal synchronization of relativistic electron and laser beams

  • P. Scherkl,
  • A. Knetsch,
  • T. Heinemann,
  • A. Sutherland,
  • A. F. Habib,
  • O. S. Karger,
  • D. Ullmann,
  • A. Beaton,
  • G. G. Manahan,
  • Y. Xi,
  • A. Deng,
  • M. D. Litos,
  • B. D. O’Shea,
  • S. Z. Green,
  • C. I. Clarke,
  • G. Andonian,
  • R. Assmann,
  • D. L. Bruhwiler,
  • J. Smith,
  • J. R. Cary,
  • M. J. Hogan,
  • V. Yakimenko,
  • J. B. Rosenzweig,
  • B. Hidding

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.25.052803
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 5
p. 052803

Abstract

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We present an ultracompact plasma-based method to measure spatial and temporal concurrence of intense electron and laser beams nonintrusively at their interaction point. The electron beam couples with a laser-generated seed plasma in dependence of spatiotemporal overlap, which triggers additional plasma production and manifests as enhanced plasma afterglow. This optical observable is exploited to measure beam concurrence with ∼4 μm spatial and ∼26.7 fs temporal accuracy, supported by auxiliary diagnostics. The afterglow interaction fingerprint is highly sensitive and enables ultraversatile femtosecond-micrometer beam metrology.