Download or read book Investigation of Electron Laser Wakefield Acceleration in Novel Plasma Structures written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Investigation of Electron Laser Wakefield Accelaration in Novel Plasma Structures written by Christos Kamperdis and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Phase Space Dynamics in Plasma Based Wakefield Acceleration written by Xinlu Xu and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-02 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores several key issues in beam phase space dynamics in plasma-based wakefield accelerators. It reveals the phase space dynamics of ionization-based injection methods by identifying two key phase mixing processes. Subsequently, the book proposes a two-color laser ionization injection scheme for generating high-quality beams, and assesses it using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. To eliminate emittance growth when the beam propagates between plasma accelerators and traditional accelerator components, a method using longitudinally tailored plasma structures as phase space matching components is proposed. Based on the aspects above, a preliminary design study on X-ray free-electron lasers driven by plasma accelerators is presented. Lastly, an important type of numerical noise—the numerical Cherenkov instabilities in particle-in-cell codes—is systematically studied.

Download or read book Laser Wakefield Acceleration written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Particle accelerators enable scientists to study the fundamental structure of the universe, but have become the largest and most expensive of scientific instruments. In this project, we advanced the science and technology of laser-plasma accelerators, which are thousands of times smaller and less expensive than their conventional counterparts. In a laser-plasma accelerator, a powerful laser pulse exerts light pressure on an ionized gas, or plasma, thereby driving an electron density wave, which resembles the wake behind a boat. Electrostatic fields within this plasma wake reach tens of billions of volts per meter, fields far stronger than ordinary non-plasma matter (such as the matter that a conventional accelerator is made of) can withstand. Under the right conditions, stray electrons from the surrounding plasma become trapped within these "wake-fields", surf them, and acquire energy much faster than is possible in a conventional accelerator. Laser-plasma accelerators thus might herald a new generation of compact, low-cost accelerators for future particle physics, x-ray and medical research. In this project, we made two major advances in the science of laser-plasma accelerators. The first of these was to accelerate electrons beyond 1 gigaelectronvolt (1 GeV) for the first time. In experimental results reported in Nature Communications in 2013, about 1 billion electrons were captured from a tenuous plasma (about 1/100 of atmosphere density) and accelerated to 2 GeV within about one inch, while maintaining less than 5% energy spread, and spreading out less than 1/2 milliradian (i.e. 1/2 millimeter per meter of travel). Low energy spread and high beam collimation are important for applications of accelerators as coherent x-ray sources or particle colliders. This advance was made possible by exploiting unique properties of the Texas Petawatt Laser, a powerful laser at the University of Texas at Austin that produces pulses of 150 femtoseconds (1 femtosecond is 10-15 seconds) in duration and 150 Joules in energy (equivalent to the muzzle energy of a small pistol bullet). This duration was well matched to the natural electron density oscillation period of plasma of 1/100 atmospheric density, enabling efficient excitation of a plasma wake, while this energy was sufficient to drive a high-amplitude wake of the right shape to produce an energetic, collimated electron beam. Continuing research is aimed at increasing electron energy even further, increasing the number of electrons captured and accelerated, and developing applications of the compact, multi-GeV accelerator as a coherent, hard x-ray source for materials science, biomedical imaging and homeland security applications. The second major advance under this project was to develop new methods of visualizing the laser-driven plasma wake structures that underlie laser-plasma accelerators. Visualizing these structures is essential to understanding, optimizing and scaling laser-plasma accelerators. Yet prior to work under this project, computer simulations based on estimated initial conditions were the sole source of detailed knowledge of the complex, evolving internal structure of laser-driven plasma wakes. In this project we developed and demonstrated a suite of optical visualization methods based on well-known methods such as holography, streak cameras, and coherence tomography, but adapted to the ultrafast, light-speed, microscopic world of laser-driven plasma wakes. Our methods output images of laser-driven plasma structures in a single laser shot. We first reported snapshots of low-amplitude laser wakes in Nature Physics in 2006. We subsequently reported images of high-amplitude laser-driven plasma "bubbles", which are important for producing electron beams with low energy spread, in Physical Review Letters in 2010. More recently, we have figured out how to image laser-driven structures that change shape while propagating in a single laser shot. The latter techniques, which use t ...

Download or read book Investigation of Electron Acceleration and Deceleration in Plasmas written by Shao-Wei Chou and published by Sudwestdeutscher Verlag Fur Hochschulschriften AG. This book was released on 2016-05-24 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work covers several aspects related to Laser WakeField Acceleration (LWFA). A strong and ultrashort laser pulse can generate plasma waves with accelerating gradients up to 100s GV/m, four orders of magnitude higher than a conventional radio frequency linear accelerator. The LWFA electrons have been characterized as an ultra-short and high brilliance source. These remarkable properties lead to a compact accelerator which is of great scientific interest for building a table-top coherent free electron laser as well as a single-shot electron diffraction device. On the other hand, a new application of LWFA is to utilize the high peak current LWFA electron bunch to drive a wakefield efficiently inside a high density underdense plasma. The resulting wakefield quickly decelerates the driver bunch or accelerates a properly designed witness bunch, and therefore the plasma is utilized as a compact beam dump or an afterburner staged after a regular LWFA.

Download or read book Experimental Investigations of Beam Driven Plasma Wakefield Accelerators written by Navid Vafaei-Najafabadi and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) uses a plasma wave (a wake) to accelerate electrons at a gradient that is three orders of magnitude higher than that of a conventional accelerator. When the plasma wave is driven by a high-density particle beam or a high-intensity laser pulse, it evolves into the nonlinear blowout regime, where the driver expels the background plasma electrons, resulting in an ion cavity forming behind the driver. This ion cavity has ideal properties for accelerating and focusing electrons. One method to insert electrons into this highly-relativistic, transient structure is by ionization injection. In this method, electrons resulting from further ionization of the ions inside the wake are trapped and accelerated by the wakefield. These injected electrons absorb the energy of the wake, resulting in a reduced accelerating field amplitude; this phenomenon is known as beam loading. This thesis discusses experiments that demonstrate how ionization injection can, on the one hand, lead to excessive beam loading and be a detriment to a PWFA, while on the other hand, it may be taken advantage of to produce bright electron beams that will be necessary for applications of a PWFA to a free electron laser (FEL) or a collider. These experiments were part of the FACET Campaign at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and used FACET's 3 nC, 20.35 GeV electron beam to field ionize the plasma source and drive a wake. In the first experiment, the plasma source was a 30 cm column of rubidium (Rb) vapor. The low ionization potential and high atomic mass of Rb made it a suitable candidate as a plasma source for a PWFA. However, the low ionization potential of the Rb+ ion resulted in continuous ionization of Rb+ and injection of electrons along the length of the plasma. This resulted in heavy beam-loading, which reduced the strength of the accelerating field by half, making the Rb source unusable for a PWFA. In the second experiment, the plasma source was a column of lithium (Li) vapor bound by cold helium (He) gas. Here, the ionization injection of He electrons in the 10 cm boundary region between Li and He led to localized beam loading and resulted in an accelerated electron beam with high energy (32 GeV), a 10% energy spread, and an emittance an order of magnitude smaller than the drive beam. Particle-in-cell simulations indicate that the beam loading can be further optimized by reducing the injection region even more, which can lead to bright, high-current, low-energy-spread electron beams.

Download or read book Investigation of Staged Laser Plasma Acceleration written by Satomi Shiraishi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-07-10 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis establishes an exciting new beginning for Laser Plasma Accelerators (LPAs) to further develop toward the next generation of compact high energy accelerators. Design, installation and commissioning of a new experimental setup at LBNL played an important role and are detailed through three critical components: e-beam production, reflection of laser pulses with a plasma mirror and large wake excitation below electron injection threshold. Pulses from a 40 TW peak power laser system were split into a 25 TW pulse and a 15 TW pulse. The first pulse was used for e-beam production in the first module and the second pulse was used for wake excitation in the second module to post-accelerate the e-beam. As a result, reliable e-beam production and efficient wake excitation necessary for the staged acceleration were independently demonstrated. These experiments have laid the foundation for future staging experiments at the 40 TW peak power level.

Download or read book Experimental Studies of Laser Plasma Wakefield Acceleration written by Constantin Aniculaesei and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis describes experiments that explore the possibility of improving the quality of an electron beam obtained from a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) by shaping the longitudinal plasma density profile. Different density profiles have been obtained by employing a range of Laval nozzles with different geometries. These are modelled and numerically simulated under different conditions using Fluent 6.3. Density lineouts from simulations for different heights above the nozzle give the plasma density profile for each experimental condition. The plasma density profile is modified by changing the geometry of the nozzle, the interaction point, the laser beam angle relative to the exit plane of the nozzle and pressure of the gas. In this way the leading up-ramp length of the density profile (that interacts first with the laser) has been varied between 0.47 mm to 1.39 mm and the maximum plasma density varied between 1.29 x 1019 cm−3 to 2.03 x 1019 cm−3. The influence of the density profile parameters on the LWFA process is quantified by monitoring the properties of the generated electron beam. It is shown that the leading ramp of the plasma density profile i.e. the ramp that interacts first with the laser, has a strong influence on the quality of the electron beam. Density profiles with the same peak plasma density but different ramp lengths generate electron beams with a factor of 1.4 difference in charge, 1.1 in electron energy, 2 in pointing and 1.45 in energy spread. Longer ramp lengths enhance the quality of electron beams, which suggest that LWFA injection occurs at the entrance density ramp. Complex density profiles are produced by tilting the nozzle relative to the direction of propagation of the laser. This allows continuous tuning of the peak energy of the electron beam from 135 ± 2MeV up to 171 ± 2MeV. The electron beam energy spread show improvements from 20.7 ± 1.2% to 8.9 ± 0.9%. The charge closely follows the evolution of the energy spread and has a mean value of 0.61 ± 0.16 pC. Experimental results also show that the angular distribution of the electron beam becomes elliptical when the laser focal plane is moved from the edge of the gas jet towards the centre of the density profile. This result is linked to the existence of a distorted LWFA bubble that propagates off-axis therefore affecting the pointing and transverse shape of the electron beam.

Download or read book Frontiers in High Energy Density Physics written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-05-11 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent scientific and technical advances have made it possible to create matter in the laboratory under conditions relevant to astrophysical systems such as supernovae and black holes. These advances will also benefit inertial confinement fusion research and the nation's nuclear weapon's program. The report describes the major research facilities on which such high energy density conditions can be achieved and lists a number of key scientific questions about high energy density physics that can be addressed by this research. Several recommendations are presented that would facilitate the development of a comprehensive strategy for realizing these research opportunities.

Download or read book High Power Laser Plasma Interaction written by C. S. Liu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-23 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of high-power laser-plasma interaction has grown in the last few decades, with applications ranging from laser-driven fusion and laser acceleration of charged particles to laser ablation of materials. This comprehensive text covers fundamental concepts including electromagnetics and electrostatic waves, parameter instabilities, laser driven fusion,charged particle acceleration and gamma rays. Two important techniques of laser proton interactions including target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) and radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) are discussed in detail, along with their applications in the field of medicine. An analytical framework is developed for laser beat-wave and wakefield excitation of plasma waves and subsequent acceleration of electrons. The book covers parametric oscillator model and studies the coupling of laser light with collective modes.

Download or read book Study of Relativistic Electrons Generated from Ultra intense Laser plasma Interaction Relevant to Laser Wakefield Acceleration and Fast Ignition Laser Fusion written by Mianzhen Mo and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ultra-intense (> 10^18 W/cm^2) laser interaction with matter is capable of producing relativistic electrons which have a variety of applications in scientific and medical research. Knowledge of various aspects of these hot electrons is important in harnessing them for various applications. Of particular interest for this thesis is the investigation of hot electrons generated in the areas of Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA) and Fast Ignition (FI). LWFA is a physical process in which electrons are accelerated by the strong longitudinal electrostatic fields that are formed inside the plasma cavities or wakes produced by the propagation of an ultra-intense laser pulse through an under-dense plasma. The accelerating E-fields inside the cavities are 1000 times higher than those of conventional particle accelerators and can accelerate electrons to the relativistic regime in a very short distance, on the order of a few millimeters. In addition, Betatron X-ray radiation can be produced from LWFA as a result of the transverse oscillations of the relativistic electrons inside the laser wakefield driven cavity. The pulse duration of Betatron radiation can be as short as a few femtoseconds, making it an ideal probe for measuring physical phenomena taking place on the time scale of femtoseconds. Experimental research on the electron acceleration of the LWFA has been conducted in this thesis and has led to the generation of mono-energetic electron bunches with peak energies ranging from a few hundreds of MeV to 1 GeV. In addition, the Betatron radiation emitted from LWFA was successfully characterized based on a technique of reflection off a grazing incidence mirror. Furthermore, we have developed a Betatron X-ray probe beamline based on the technique of K-shell absorption spectroscopy to directly measure the temporal evolution of the ionization states of warm dense aluminum. With this, we have achieved for the first time direct measurements of the ionization states of warm dense aluminum using Betatron X-ray radiation probing. Fast Ignition (FI) is an advanced scheme for inertial confinement fusion (ICF), in which the fuel ignition process is decoupled from its compression. Comparing with the conventional central hot-spot scheme for ICF, FI has the advantages of lower ignition threshold and higher gain. The success of FI relies on efficient energy coupling from the heating laser pulse to the hot electrons and subsequent transport of their energy to the compressed fuel. As a secondary part of this thesis, the transport of hot electrons in overdense plasma relevant to FI was studied. In particular, the effect of resistive layers within the target on the hot electron divergence and absorption was investigated. Experimental measurements were carried out and compared to simulations indicating minimal effect on the beam divergence but some attenuation through higher atomic number intermediate layers was observed.

Download or read book Laser Wakefield Electron Acceleration written by Karl Schmid and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-05-19 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis covers the few-cycle laser-driven acceleration of electrons in a laser-generated plasma. This process, known as laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA), relies on strongly driven plasma waves for the generation of accelerating gradients in the vicinity of several 100 GV/m, a value four orders of magnitude larger than that attainable by conventional accelerators. This thesis demonstrates that laser pulses with an ultrashort duration of 8 fs and a peak power of 6 TW allow the production of electron energies up to 50 MeV via LWFA. The special properties of laser accelerated electron pulses, namely the ultrashort pulse duration, the high brilliance, and the high charge density, open up new possibilities in many applications of these electron beams.

Download or read book Laser Plasma Interactions and Applications written by Paul McKenna and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-29 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laser-Plasma Interactions and Applications covers the fundamental and applied aspects of high power laser-plasma physics. With an internationally renowned team of authors, the book broadens the knowledge of young researchers working in high power laser-plasma science by providing them with a thorough pedagogical grounding in the interaction of laser radiation with matter, laser-plasma accelerators, and inertial confinement fusion. The text is organised such that the theoretical foundations of the subject are discussed first, in Part I. In Part II, topics in the area of high energy density physics are covered. Parts III and IV deal with the applications to inertial confinement fusion and as a driver of particle and radiation sources, respectively. Finally, Part V describes the principle diagnostic, targetry, and computational approaches used in the field. This book is designed to give students a thorough foundation in the fundamental physics of laser-plasma interactions. It will also provide readers with knowledge of the latest research trends and elucidate future exciting challenges in laser-plasma science.

Download or read book Experimental Study of Laser driven Electron and Proton Acceleration written by Salima Abuazoum and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis addresses two important topics in the field of laser-driven plasma accelerators. Firstly, the research investigates the generation of relativistic electron beams through laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA) by applying novel tapered capillary discharge waveguide accelerators, produced by femtosecond laser micromachining. A stable plasma waveguide is formed in a hydrogen-filled capillary driven by an all-solid state high-voltage pulser, specially constructed for this purpose. A longitudinal density taper has been confirmed by measurement of the transverse plasma density profiles at both ends of the waveguide and efficient guiding of low intensity (~1012 W/cm2), ultra-short duration (50 fs) laser pulses is demonstrated. For optimal high-power laser conditions (intensity of 1.6 x 1018 W/cm2), electron beams are produced and compared in positively tapered, negatively tapered and straight capillaries with similar plasma densities of 3-6 x 1018 cm-3 over a length of 4 cm. In all three capillaries, low charge (

Download or read book Laser Plasma Interactions written by Dino A. Jaroszynski and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2009-03-27 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Solid Compendium of Advanced Diagnostic and Simulation ToolsExploring the most exciting and topical areas in this field, Laser-Plasma Interactions focuses on the interaction of intense laser radiation with plasma. After discussing the basic theory of the interaction of intense electromagnetic radiation fields with matter, the book covers three ap

Download or read book Beam Acceleration In Crystals And Nanostructures Proceedings Of The Workshop written by Gerard Mourou and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Studies of Transverse Properties of Relativistic Electrons from Laser Wakefield Accelerator written by Grace Gloria Manahan and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) can occur when the ponderomotive force of high power ultra short laser pulses produce wakefields in underdense plasma. The structure of these wakefields are similar to those in rf cavities of conventional linear accelerators, but are characterised by large fields that can accelerate particles to high energies over much shorter distances. Compactness and inherent short bunch duration make LWFAs potential candidates for laboratory-scale coherent radiation sources. Currently, theoretical and experimental studies are being pursued to obtain in-depth understanding of LWFAs, in particular the injection mechanisms, as these will lead to better control and improved quality of the electron beams. Experimental effort is being directed towards the design of suitable diagnostics to measure the most important properties of the electron beam, one of which is the emittance. Emittance is a good figure of merit as it describes the beam distribution in phase space and provides information on the beam focusability. This work presents a numerical and experimental study of the potential of LWFA as a next generation table-top accelerator. The first part of the thesis investigates the transport of LWFA produced electron beams using conventional devices. To provide a "usable" beam, the transport system should be capable of preserving the transverse emittance. Possible sources of emittance growth are examined, focusing on the effects of energy spread, divergence and pointing stability on the emittance. The second part of the thesis presents direct single shot measurements of the transverse emittance using the pepper-pot technique. This method is also used to quantify the performance of high-gradient miniature permanent quadrupoles.