The acceleration of ions in the interaction of high intensity laser pulses with overdense plasmas is investigated with particle-in-cell simulations. For circular polarization of the laser pulses, high-density ion bunches moving into the plasma are generated at the laser-plasma interaction surface. A simple analytical model accounts for the numerical observations and provides scaling laws for the ion bunch energy and generation time as a function of pulse intensity and plasma density.
Using 1D and 2D PIC simulations, we describe and model the backward ejection of electron bunches when a laser pulse reflects off an overdense plasma with a sharp density gradient on its front side. The dependence on the laser intensity and gradient scale length is studied. It is found that during each laser period the incident laser pulse generates a large charge-separation field, or plasma capacitor, which accelerates an attosecond bunch of electrons towards vacuum. This process is maximized for short gradient scale lengths and collapses when the gradient scale length is comparable to the las…
We propose a method to generate femtosecond, relativistic and high-charge electron bunches using few-cycle and tightly focused radially polarized laser pulses. In this scheme, the incident laser pulse reflects off an overdense plasma that injects electrons into the reflected pulse. Particle-In-Cell simulations show that the plasma injects electrons ideally, resulting in a dramatic increase of charge and energy of the accelerated electron bunch in comparison to previous methods. This method can be used to generate femtosecond pC bunches with energies in the 1-10 MeV range using realistic laser …
The understanding of the physics of lasermatter interactions in the strongly relativistic regime is of fundamental importance. In this article, a new mechanism of fast electron generation at the vacuum-solid boundary of intense laser pulse interaction with overdense plasma is described. It is one that has no analogue in classical, non-relativistic laser-plasma interactions. Here, conclusive proof is provided that the key contribution to the fast electron generation is given by the zero points of the vector potential. We demonstrate that the new mechanism leads to scalings for the fast electron…
We present a new mechanism of attosecond extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulses generation from a relativistic laser-driven overdense plasma surfaces in the wavebreaking regime. Through particle-in-cell simulations and analysis, we demonstrate that the observed ultrashort XUV emission for the parameters we considered is predominantly due to a strong plasma-density oscillation subsequent to wavebreaking. The coupling of the strong density variation and the transverse fields in the front surface layer gives rise to the transmitted emission with frequencies mainly around the local plasma frequency. Thi…
Observations of the interaction of an intense λ0 \approx 10 μm laser pulse with near-critical overdense plasmas (ne = 1.8 - 3 nc) are presented. For the first time, transverse optical probing is used to show a recession of the front surface caused by radiation pressure driven hole-boring by the laser pulse with an initial velocity > 10^6 ms-1, and the resulting collisionless shocks. The collisionless shock propagates through the plasma, dissipates into an ion-acoustic solitary wave, and eventually becomes collisional as it slows further. These conclusions are supported by PIC simulations which…
Propagation of short and ultra-intense laser pulses in a semi-infinite space of overdense hydrogen plasma is analyzed via fully-relativistic, real geometry particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations including radiation friction. The relativistic transparency and hole-boring regimes are found to be sensitive to the transverse plasma field, backward light reflection, and laser pulse filamentation. For laser intensities approaching $I\sim10^{24}$ W/cm$^2$ the direct laser acceleration of protons, along with ion Coulomb explosion, results in their injection into the acceleration phase of the compressed el…
We have shown both experimentally and theoretically that polarization-independent broad-band absorption of electromagnetic waves by an overdense plasma, caused by surface plasmon-polaritons (SPP) excitation, can be achieved due to combination of two factors: a non-zero angle of incidence and a two-dimensional circular diffraction grating placed at a properly chosen distance in front of the plasma boundary. Direct detection of SPP has been achieved for the first time using a miniature antenna imbedded in the plasma.
We present a Vlasov, i.e. a kinetic Eulerian simulation study of nonlinear collisionless ion-acoustic shocks and solitons excited by an intense laser interacting with an overdense plasma. The use of the Vlasov code avoids problems with low particle statistics and allows a validation of particle-in-cell results. A simple original correction to the splitting method for the numerical integration of the Vlasov equation has been implemented in order to ensure the charge conservation in the relativistic regime. We show that the ion distribution is affected by the development of a turbulence driven b…
Monoenergetic acceleration of charge-neutralized ion bunches to GeV-scale energies by the combination of a high-current electron beam and an ionization front
Cornell University（康奈尔大学）；Cornell Laboratory for Plasma Studies（康奈尔等离子体研究实验室）
A new method for diagnosing the temporal characteristics of ultrashort electron bunches with linear energy chirp generated from a laser wakefield accelerator is described. When the ionization-injected bunch interacts with the back of the drive laser, it is deflected and stretched along the direction of the electric field of the laser. Upon exiting the plasma, if the bunch goes through a narrow slit in front of the dipole magnet that disperses the electrons in the plane of the laser polarization, it can form a series of bunchlets that have different energies but are separated by half a laser wa…
The ionization-induced injection in laser wakefield acceleration has been recently demonstrated to be a promising injection scheme. However, the energy spread controlling in this mechanism remains a challenge because continuous injection in a mixed gas target is usually inevitable. Here we propose that by use of certain initially unmatched laser pulses, the electron injection can be constrained to the very front region of the mixed gas target, typically in a length of a few hundreds micro meters determined by laser-driven bubble deformation. Under some optimized conditions, the injection regio…
We analyze the transverse stability for a configuration of multiple gaussian bunches subject to the self-generated plasma wakefield. Through a semi-analytical approach we first study the equilibrium configuration for the modulated beam and then we investigate the evolution of the equilibrium configuration due to the emittance-driven expansion of the beam front that results in a rigid backward shift. The rear-directed shift brings the modulated beam out of the equilibrium, with the possibility for some of the bunch particles to be lost with a consequent deterioration of the driver. We look ther…
Collider-quality electron bunches from an all-optical plasma photoinjector
Stony Brook University（石溪大学）；University of California, Los Angeles（加州大学洛杉矶分校）；University of Rochester（罗切斯特大学）；Brookhaven National Laboratory（布鲁克海文国家实验室）；University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）
Seeding of Self-Modulation using Truncated Seed Bunches as a Path to High Gradient Acceleration
PARTREC, UMCG, University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学）；CERN（欧洲核子研究中心）；John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science, University of Oxford（牛津大学约翰·亚当斯加速器科学研究所）；Max Planck Institute for Physics（马克斯·普朗克物理研究所）；Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf（杜塞尔多夫海因里希·海涅大学）；University College London（伦敦大学学院）；Uppsala University（乌普萨拉大学）
By means of hollow plasma, multiple proton bunches work well in driving nonlinear plasma wakefields and accelerate electrons to energy frontier with preserved beam quality. However, the acceleration of positrons is different because the accelerating structure is strongly charge dependent. There is a discrepancy between keeping a small normalized emittance and a small energy spread. This results from the conflict that the plasma electrons used to provide focusing to the multiple proton bunches dilute the positron bunch. By loading an extra electron bunch to repel the plasma electrons and meanwh…
Ion acceleration due to the interaction between a short high-intensity laser pulse and a moderately overdense plasma target is studied using Eulerian Vlasov-Maxwell simulations. The effects of variations in the plasma density profile and laser pulse parameters are investigated, and the interplay of collisionless shock and target normal sheath acceleration is analyzed. It is shown that the use of a layered-target with a combination of light and heavy ions, on the front and rear side respectively, yields a strong quasi-static sheath-field on the rear side of the heavy-ion part of the target. Thi…
A novel setup allows the Weibel instability and its interplay with the Biermann battery to be probed in laser-driven collisionless plasmas. Ab initio particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of the interaction of short ($ \le ps$) intense $(a_0 \ge 1)$ laser-pulses with overdense plasma targets show observable Weibel generated magnetic fields. This field strength surpasses that of the Biermann battery, usually dominant in experiments, as long as the gradient scale length is much larger than the local electron inertial length; this is achievable by carefully setting the appropriate gradients in the f…
Plasma waves generated in the wake of intense, relativistic laser or particle beams can accelerate electron bunches to giga-electronvolt (GeV) energies in centimetre-scale distances. This allows the realization of compact accelerators having emerging applications, ranging from modern light sources such as the free-electron laser (FEL) to energy frontier lepton colliders. In a plasma wakefield accelerator, such multi-gigavolt-per-metre (GV m$^{-1}$) wakefields can accelerate witness electron bunches that are either externally injected or captured from the background plasma. Here we demonstrate …
The interaction of laser with plasmas leads to many interesting phenomena which includes laser energy absorption, mode conversion, energetic particle generation etc. In this work, the excitation of Korteweg - de Vries (KdV) Alfven solitons in plasma is demonstrated with the help of 2-D Particle - In - Cell (PIC) simulations. For this purpose, the propagation of a pulsed $CO_2$ (with a wavelength of $10 μm$) laser normally incident on an overdense plasma target is considered in the presence of an external magnetic field. The magnitude of the external magnetic field is chosen so as to have the e…
The ion beam bunching in a cascaded target normal sheath acceleration is investigated by theoretical analysis and particle-in-cell simulations. It is found that a proton beam can be accelerated and bunched simultaneously by injecting it into the rising sheath field at the rear side of a laser-irradiated foil target. In the rising sheath field, the ion phase rotation may take place since the back-end protons of the beam feels a stronger field than the front-end protons. Consequently, the injected proton beam can be compressed in the longitudinal direction. At last, the vital role of the ion bea…
Bright dual-pulse betatron X-ray generation from a laser wakefield accelerator
Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences（北京量子信息科学研究院）；Zhengzhou University（郑州大学）；Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所）；Tsinghua University（清华大学）
High-brightness beams generated by particle sources based on advanced accelerator concepts have the potential to become an essential part of future accelerator technology. High-gradient accelerators can generate and rapidly accelerate particle beams to relativistic energies while minimizing irreversible detrimental effects to the beam brightness that occur at low beam energies. Due to the high accelerating gradients, these novel accelerators are also significantly more compact than conventional technology. The beam parameters of these particle sources are largely determined by the injection an…
The FLASHForward experimental facility is a high-performance test-bed for precision plasma-wakefield research, aiming to accelerate high-quality electron beams to GeV-levels in a few centimetres of ionised gas. The plasma is created by ionising gas in a gas cell either by a high-voltage discharge or a high-intensity laser pulse. The electrons to be accelerated will either be injected internally from the plasma background or externally from the FLASH superconducting RF front end. In both cases the wakefield will be driven by electron beams provided by the FLASH gun and linac modules operating w…
