| 1. |
- Ferri, Julien, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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High-Brilliance Betatron γ -Ray Source Powered by Laser-Accelerated Electrons
- 2018
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114 .- 0031-9007. ; 120:25
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent progress in laser-driven plasma acceleration now enables the acceleration of electrons to several gigaelectronvolts. Taking advantage of these novel accelerators, ultrashort, compact, and spatially coherent x-ray sources called betatron radiation have been developed and applied to high-resolution imaging. However, the scope of the betatron sources is limited by a low energy efficiency and a photon energy in the 10 s of kiloelectronvolt range, which for example prohibits the use of these sources for probing dense matter. Here, based on three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we propose an original hybrid scheme that combines a low-density laser-driven plasma accelerator with a high-density beam-driven plasma radiator, thereby considerably increasing the photon energy and the radiated energy of the betatron source. The energy efficiency is also greatly improved, with about 1% of the laser energy transferred to the radiation, and the γ-ray photon energy exceeds the megaelectronvolt range when using a 15 J laser pulse. This high-brilliance hybrid betatron source opens the way to a wide range of applications requiring MeV photons, such as the production of medical isotopes with photonuclear reactions, radiography of dense objects in the defense or industrial domains, and imaging in nuclear physics.
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| 2. |
- Guillaume, E., et al.
(författare)
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Electron Rephasing in a Laser-Wakefield Accelerator
- 2015
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - : American Physical Society. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 115:15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An important limit for energy gain in laser-plasma wakefield accelerators is the dephasing length, after which the electron beam reaches the decelerating region of the wakefield and starts to decelerate. Here, we propose to manipulate the phase of the electron beam in the wakefield, in order to bring the beam back into the accelerating region, hence increasing the final beam energy. This rephasing is operated by placing an upward density step in the beam path. In a first experiment, we demonstrate the principle of this technique using a large energy spread electron beam. Then, we show that it can be used to increase the energy of monoenergetic electron beams by more than 50%.
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| 3. |
- Götzfried, J., et al.
(författare)
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Physics of High-Charge Electron Beams in Laser-Plasma Wakefields
- 2020
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Ingår i: Physical Review X. - : American Physical Society. - 2160-3308. ; 10:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) and its particle-driven counterpart, particle or plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA), are commonly treated as separate, though related, branches of high-gradient plasma-based acceleration. However, novel proposed schemes are increasingly residing at the interface of both concepts where the understanding of their interplay becomes crucial. Here, we present a comprehensive study of this regime, which we may term laser-plasma wakefields. Using datasets of hundreds of shots, we demonstrate the influence of beam loading on the spectral shape of electron bunches. Similar results are obtained using both 100-TW-class and few-cycle lasers, highlighting the scale invariance of the involved physical processes. Furthermore, we probe the interplay of dual electron bunches in the same or in two subsequent plasma periods under the influence of beam loading. We show that, with decreasing laser intensity, beam loading transitions to a beam-dominated regime, where the first bunch acts as the main driver of the wakefield. This transition is evidenced experimentally by a varying acceleration of a low-energy witness beam with respect to the charge of a high-energy drive beam in a spatially separate gas target. Our results also present an important step in the development of LWFA using controlled injection in a shock front. The electron beams in this study reach record performance in terms of laser-to-beam energy transfer efficiency (up to 10%), spectral charge density (regularly exceeding 10 pC MeV−1), and angular charge density (beyond 300 pC μsr−1 at 220 MeV). We provide an experimental scaling for the accelerated charge per terawatt (TW) of laser power, which approaches 2 nC at 300 TW. With the expanding availability of petawatt-class (PW) lasers, these beam parameters will become widely accessible. Thus, the physics of laser-plasma wakefields is expected to become increasingly relevant, as it provides new paths toward low-emittance beam generation for future plasma-based colliders or light sources.
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| 4. |
- Wenz, J., et al.
(författare)
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Dual-energy electron beams from a compact laser-driven accelerator
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature Photonics. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 1749-4885 .- 1749-4893. ; 13, s. 263-269
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ultrafast pump–probe experiments open the possibility to track fundamental material behaviour, such as changes in electronic configuration, in real time. To date, most of these experiments are performed using an electron or a high-energy photon beam that is synchronized to an infrared laser pulse. Entirely new opportunities can be explored if not only a single, but multiple synchronized, ultrashort, high-energy beams are used. However, this requires advanced radiation sources that are capable of producing dual-energy electron beams, for example. Here, we demonstrate simultaneous generation of twin-electron beams from a single compact laser wakefield accelerator. The energy of each beam can be individually adjusted over a wide range and our analysis shows that the bunch lengths and their delay inherently amount to femtoseconds. Our proof-of-concept results demonstrate an elegant way to perform multi-beam experiments in the future on a laboratory scale.
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| 5. |
- Ju, J., et al.
(författare)
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Enhancement of x-rays generated by a guided laser wakefield accelerator inside capillary tubes
- 2012
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Ingår i: Applied Physics Letters. - : AIP Publishing. - 0003-6951 .- 1077-3118. ; 100:19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract in UndeterminedElectrons accelerated in the nonlinear regime in a laser wakefield accelerator experience transverse oscillations inside the plasma cavity, giving rise to ultra-short pulsed x-rays, also called the betatron radiation. We show that the fluence of x-ray can be enhanced by more than one order of magnitude when the laser is guided by a 10 mm long capillary tube instead of interacting with a 2 mm gas jet. X-rays with a synchrotron-like spectrum and associated critical energy ∼ 5 keV, with a peak brightness of ∼ 1×1021 ph/s/mm2/mrad2/0.1%BW, were achieved by employing 16 TW laser pulses.
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