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Self-injected petawatt laser-driven plasma electron acceleration in 1017 cm−3 plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2012

X. WANG ,
R. ZGADZAJ ,
S. A. YI ,
V. KHUDIK ,
W. HENDERSON ,
N. FAZEL ,
Y.-Y. CHANG ,
R. KORZEKWA ,
H.-E. TSAI  and
C.-H. PAI
...Show all authors
X. WANG
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
R. ZGADZAJ
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
S. A. YI
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
V. KHUDIK
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
W. HENDERSON
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
N. FAZEL
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
Y.-Y. CHANG
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
R. KORZEKWA
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
H.-E. TSAI
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
C.-H. PAI
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
Z. LI
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
E. GAUL
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
M. MARTINEZ
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
G. DYER
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
H. QUEVEDO
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
A. BERNSTEIN
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
M. DONOVAN
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
G. SHVETS
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
T. DITMIRE
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
M. C. DOWNER
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (downer@physics.utexas.edu)
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Abstract

We report production of a self-injected, collimated (8 mrad divergence), 600 pC bunch of electrons with energies up to 350 MeV from a petawatt laser-driven plasma accelerator in a plasma of electron density ne = 1017 cm−3, an order of magnitude lower than previous self-injected laser-plasma accelerators. The energy of the focused drive laser pulse (150 J, 150 fs) was distributed over several hot spots. Simulations show that these hot spots remained independent over a 5 cm interaction length, and produced weakly nonlinear plasma wakes without bubble formation capable of accelerating pre-heated (~1 MeV) plasma electrons up to the observed energies. The required pre-heating is attributed tentatively to pre-pulse interactions with the plasma.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 78 , Special Issue 4: Progress in Laser Acceleration of Particles , August 2012 , pp. 413 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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