Generation of tunable, 100–800 MeV quasi-monoenergetic electron beams from a laser-wakefield accelerator in the blowout regime

Authors

Sudeep Banerjee, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Nathan D. Powers, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Viswanathan Ramanathan, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
I. Ghebregziabher, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Kevin J. Brown, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
C. Maharjan, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Shouyuan Chen, CEA, DAM, DIF, 91297 Arpajon Cedex, FranceFollow
A. Beck, CEA, DAM, DIF, 91297 Arpajon Cedex, France
E. Lefebvre, CEA, DAM, DIF, 91297 Arpajon Cedex, France
Serguei Y. Kalmykov, CEA, DAM, DIF, 91297 Arpajon Cedex, FranceFollow
Bradley Allan Shadwick, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Donald Umstadter, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2012

Citation

PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 19, 056703 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4718711

Comments

Copyright 2012 American Institute of Physics. Use by permission.

Abstract

In this paper, we present results on a scalable high-energy electron source based on laser wakefield acceleration. The electron accelerator using 30–80 TW, 30 fs laser pulses, operates in the blowout regime, and produces high-quality, quasi-monoenergetic electron beams in the range 100–800 MeV. These beams have angular divergence of 1–4 mrad, and 5%–25% energy spread, with a resulting brightness 10¹¹ electrons mm^-2 MeV^-1 mrad^-2. The beam parameters can be tuned by varying the laser and plasma conditions. The use of a high-quality laser pulse and appropriate target conditions enables optimization of beam quality, concentrating a significant fraction of the accelerated charge into the quasi-monoenergetic component.