A quasi-monoenergetic short time duration compact proton source for probing high energy density states of matter
J. I. Apiñaniz, S. Malko, R. Fedosejevs, W. Cayzac, X. Vaisseau, D. de Luis, G. Gatti, C. McGuffey, M. Bailly-Grandvaux, K. Bhutwala, V. Ospina-Bohorquez, J. Ba… 展开作者
J. I. Apiñaniz, S. Malko, R. Fedosejevs, W. Cayzac, X. Vaisseau, D. de Luis, G. Gatti, C. McGuffey, M. Bailly-Grandvaux, K. Bhutwala, V. Ospina-Bohorquez, J. Balboa, J. J. Santos, D. Batani, F. Beg, L. Roso, J. A. Perez-Hernandez, L. Volpe
We report on the development of a highly directional, narrow energy band, short time duration proton beam operating at high repetition rate, suitable for measurements of stopping power in high energy density plasmas as well as other applications. The protons are generated with an ultrashort-pulse laser interacting with a solid target and converted to a pencil-like narrow-band beam using a compact magnet-based energy selector. We experimentally demonstrate the production of a proton beam with an energy of 500 keV and energy spread well below 10%, and a pulse duration of 260 ps. The energy loss of this beam is measured in a 2 $μ$m thick solid Mylar target and found to be in within 1% of theoretical predictions. The short time duration of the proton pulse makes it particularly well suited for applications involving the probing of highly transient plasma states produced in laser-matter interaction experiments, in particular measurements of proton stopping power.
Snowplow ion acceleration is presented, using an ultra-relativistically intense laser pulse irradi- ating on a combination target, where the relativistic proton beam generated by radiation pressure acceleration can be trapped and accelerated by the laser plasma wakefield. The theory suggests that sub-TeV quasi-monoenergetic proton bunches can be generated by a centimeter-scale laser wakefield accelerator, driven by a circularly polarized (CP) laser pulse with the peak intensity of 10^23W/cm^2 and duration of 116fs.
Generation of collimated, quasi-monoenergetic electron beams (peak energy ~17-22MeV, divergence ~10mrad, energy spread ~20%) by interaction of Ti:sapphire laser pulse of 200fs duration, focussed to an intensity of ~ 2.1x10^18 W/cm^2,with an under-dense (density~3.6x10^19 to ~1.1x10^20 cm-3) He gas-jet plasma was observed. Two stages of self-focusing of the laser pulse in the plasma were observed. Two groups of accelerated electrons were also observed associated with these stages of the channeling and is attributed to the betatron resonance acceleration mechanism. This is supported by 2D PIC si…
An experimental investigation on laser plasma acceleration of electrons has been carried out using 3 TW, 45 fs duration titanium sapphire laser pulse interaction with nitrogen gas jet at intensity of 2x10^18 W/cm^2. We have observed stable generation of well collimated electron beam with divergence and pointing variation ~ 10 mrad from the nitrogen gas jet plasma at an optimum plasma density around 3x10^19 cm^-3. The energy spectrum of the electron beam was quasi-monoenergetic with average peak energy and charge around 25 MeV and 30 pC respectively. The results will be useful for better unders…
We use 3D simulations to demonstrate that high-quality ultra-relativistic electron bunches can be generated upon reflection of a twisted laser beam off a plasma mirror. The unique topology of the beam with a twist index $|l| = 1$ creates an accelerating structure dominated by longitudinal laser electric and magnetic fields in the near-axis region. We show that the magnetic field is essential for creating a train of dense mono-energetic bunches. For a 6.8~PW laser, the energy reaches 1.6~GeV with a spread of 5.5\%. The bunch duration is 320 as, its charge is 60~pC and density is $\sim 10^{27}$~…
The vast majority of QED results are obtained in relatively weak fields and so in the framework of perturbation theory. However, forthcoming laser facilities providing extremely high fields can be used to enter not-yet-studied regimes. Here, a scheme is proposed that might be used to reach a supercritical regime of radiation reaction or even the fully non-perturbative regime of quantum electrodynamics. The scheme considers the collision of a 100 GeV-class electron beam with a counterpropagating ultraintense electromagnetic pulse. To reach these supercritical regimes, it is unavoidable to use a…
An experimental study of laser driven electron acceleration in N2 and N2-He mixed gas-jet target using laser pulses of duration ~60-70 fs is presented. Generation of relativistic electron beam with quasi-thermal spectra was observed at a threshold density of ~1.6x1018 cm-3 in case of pure N2, and the threshold density was found to increase with increasing doping concentration of He. At an optimum fraction of 50% of He in N2, generation of quasi-monoenergetic electron beams was observed at a comparatively higher threshold density of ~2x1018 cm-3, with an average peak energy of ~168 MeV, average…
Brilliant X-ray sources are of great interest for many research fields from biology via medicine to material research. The quest for a cost-effective, brilliant source with unprecedented temporal resolution has led to the recent realization of various high-intensity-laser-driven X-ray beam sources. Here we demonstrate the first all-laser-driven, energy-tunable and quasi-monochromatic X-ray source based on Thomson backscattering. This is a decisive step beyond previous results, where the emitted radiation exhibited an uncontrolled broad energy distribution. In the experiment, one part of the la…
A linearly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian (LP-LG) laser beam with a twist index $l = -1$ has field structure that fundamentally differs from the field structure of a conventional linearly polarized Gaussian beam. Close to the axis of the LP-LG beam, the longitudinal electric and magnetic fields dominate over the transverse components. This structure offers an attractive opportunity to accelerate electrons in vacuum. It is shown, using three dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, that this scenario can be realized by reflecting an LP-LG laser off a plasma with a sharp density gradient. The simu…
We report here a systematic quantitative study on generation and characteristics of an active muon source driven by the interaction of an electron beam within the energy range of 1 to 10 GeV from laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) with a tungsten target, using Monte Carlo simulations. The 10GeV electron beam, achievable in near future, from LWFA using femtosecond multi-PW lasers is employed to drive the bright source of muon pairs in a compact setup. We show that a highly directional and intense source of short-pulsed GeV muon pairs having peak brightness 5x10^17 pairs/s/cm^2/sr and sub-100-p…
We present a method for determining the characteristics of an intense laser pulse by probing it with a relativistic electron beam. After an initial burst of very high-energy $γ$-radiation the electrons proceed to emit a series of attosecond duration X-ray pulses as they leave the field. These flashes provide detailed information about the interaction, allowing us to determine properties of the laser pulse: something that is currently a challenge for ultra-high intensity laser systems.
We visualize plasma bubbles driven by 0.67 PW laser pulses in plasma of density $n_e \approx 5\times10^{17}$ ${\rm cm}^{-3}$ by imaging Faraday rotation patterns imprinted on linearly-polarized probe pulses of wavelength $λ_{pr} = 1.05 μ$m and duration $τ_{pr} = 2$ ps or $1$ ps that cross the bubble's path at right angles. When the bubble captures and accelerates tens to hundreds of pC of electron charge, we observe two parallel streaks of length $cτ_{pr}$ straddling the drive pulse propagation axis, separated by $\sim45$ $μ$m, in which probe polarization rotates by $0.3^\circ$ to more than $5…
The sub-atomic experimental exploration of physical processes on extremely short time scales has become possible by the generation of high quality electron bunches and x-ray pulses with sub-femtosecond durations. Temporal coherence is crucial for achieving high resolution in diffraction-based diagnostics and if the transverse spatial coherence is also provided, then phenomena with very small cross sections could also be observed. Increasing the photon energy from x-ray to gamma-ray regime makes probing of extremely small space-time domains accessible. Here, a mechanism for generating attosecon…
Laser-plasma electron accelerators can be used to produce high-intensity X-rays, as electrons accelerated in wakefields emit radiation due to betatron oscillations.Such X-ray sources inherit the features of the electron beam; sub-femtosecond electron bunches produce betatron sources of the same duration, which in turn allow probing matter on ultrashort time scales. In this paper we show, via Particle-in-Cell simulations, that attosecond electron bunches can be obtained using low-energy, ultra-short laser beams both in the self-injection and the controlled injection regimes at low plasma densit…
We report the LWFA driven X-ray sources development at ELI beamlines. ELI Gammatron beamline provides X-ray pulses of energies from 1-100 keV in betatron scheme, and up to a MeV in Compton scheme. A state-of-the-art Ti:Sa diode-pumped HAPLS laser (10-30 J, 30 fs @10 Hz) is used as a driving laser for these X-ray sources. These sources are characterized with a low divergence (< 10 mrad), small source size (few μm), short pulse duration (a few fs) and photon flux up to1010 photons per pulse. In addition, a separate Betatron X-ray source is being developed in the ELI Plasma Physics Platform (P3)t…
We investigate bulk ion heating in solid buried layer targets irradiated by ultra-short laser pulses of relativistic intensities using particle-in-cell simulations. Our study focuses on a CD2-Al-CD2 sandwich target geometry. We find enhanced deuteron ion heating in a layer compressed by the expanding aluminium layer. A pressure gradient created at the Al-CD2 interface pushes this layer of deuteron ions towards the outer regions of the target. During its passage through the target, deuteron ions are constantly injected into this layer. Our simulations suggest that the directed collective outwar…
Today's high-power laser systems are capable of reaching photon intensities up to $10^{22}$ W/cm^2, generating plasmas when interacting with material. The high intensity and ultrashort laser pulse duration (fs) make direct observation of plasma dynamics a challenging task. In the field of laser-plasma physics and especially for the acceleration of ions, the spatio-temporal intensity distribution is one of the most critical aspects. We describe a novel method based on a single-shot (i.e. single laser pulse) chirped probing scheme, taking nine sequential frames at framerates up to THz. This tech…
