Energy Enhancement and Energy Spread Compression of Electron Beams in a Hybrid Laser-Plasma Wakefield Accelerator

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrated the generation of narrow energy-spread electron beams with enhanced energy levels using a hybrid laser-plasma wakefield accelerator. An experiment featuring two-color electron beams showed that after the laser pump reached the depletion length, the laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA) gradually evolved into the plasma-driven wakefield acceleration (PWFA), and thereafter, the PWFA dominated the electron acceleration. The energy spread of the electron beams was further improved by energy chirp compensation. Particle-in-cell simulations were performed to verify the experimental results. The generated monoenergetic high-energy electron beams are promising to upscale future accelerator systems and realize monoenergetic γ -ray sources.

Keywords

• two-color electron beams
• hybrid laser-plasma wakefield accelerator
• enhanced acceleration
• narrow energy spread