Matter and Radiation at Extremes (Jan 2024)
The acceleration of a high-charge electron bunch to 10 GeV in a 10-cm nanoparticle-assisted wakefield accelerator
- Constantin Aniculaesei,
- Thanh Ha,
- Samuel Yoffe,
- Lance Labun,
- Stephen Milton,
- Edward McCary,
- Michael M. Spinks,
- Hernan J. Quevedo,
- Ou Z. Labun,
- Ritwik Sain,
- Andrea Hannasch,
- Rafal Zgadzaj,
- Isabella Pagano,
- Jose A. Franco-Altamirano,
- Martin L. Ringuette,
- Erhart Gaul,
- Scott V. Luedtke,
- Ganesh Tiwari,
- Bernhard Ersfeld,
- Enrico Brunetti,
- Hartmut Ruhl,
- Todd Ditmire,
- Sandra Bruce,
- Michael E. Donovan,
- Michael C. Downer,
- Dino A. Jaroszynski,
- Bjorn Manuel Hegelich
Affiliations
- Constantin Aniculaesei
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Thanh Ha
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Samuel Yoffe
- SUPA Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- Lance Labun
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Stephen Milton
- Tau Systems, Inc., Austin, Texas 78701, USA
- Edward McCary
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Michael M. Spinks
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Hernan J. Quevedo
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Ou Z. Labun
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Ritwik Sain
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Andrea Hannasch
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Rafal Zgadzaj
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Isabella Pagano
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Jose A. Franco-Altamirano
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Martin L. Ringuette
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Erhart Gaul
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Scott V. Luedtke
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
- Ganesh Tiwari
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
- Bernhard Ersfeld
- SUPA Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- Enrico Brunetti
- SUPA Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- Hartmut Ruhl
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
- Todd Ditmire
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Sandra Bruce
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Michael E. Donovan
- Tau Systems, Inc., Austin, Texas 78701, USA
- Michael C. Downer
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Dino A. Jaroszynski
- SUPA Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- Bjorn Manuel Hegelich
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0161687
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 9,
no. 1
pp. 014001 – 014001-10
Abstract
An intense laser pulse focused onto a plasma can excite nonlinear plasma waves. Under appropriate conditions, electrons from the background plasma are trapped in the plasma wave and accelerated to ultra-relativistic velocities. This scheme is called a laser wakefield accelerator. In this work, we present results from a laser wakefield acceleration experiment using a petawatt-class laser to excite the wakefields as well as nanoparticles to assist the injection of electrons into the accelerating phase of the wakefields. We find that a 10-cm-long, nanoparticle-assisted laser wakefield accelerator can generate 340 pC, 10 ± 1.86 GeV electron bunches with a 3.4 GeV rms convolved energy spread and a 0.9 mrad rms divergence. It can also produce bunches with lower energies in the 4–6 GeV range.
