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Using a laser plasma accelerator, experiments with a 80 TW and 30 fs laser pulse demonstrated quasi-monoenergetic electron spectra with maximum energy over 0.4 GeV. This is achieved using a supersonic He gas jet and a sharp density ramp generated by a high intensity laser crossing pre-pulse focused 3 ns before the main laser pulse. By adjusting this crossing pre-pulse position inside the gas jet, among the laser shots with electron injection, more than 40% can produce quasi-monoenergetic spectra. This could become a relatively straight forward technique to control laser wakefield electron beams parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation of an electron beam through longitudinal field acceleration from a tightly focused radially polarized (TM01) laser mode is reported. The longitudinal field is generated by focusing a TM01 few-cycle laser pulse (1.8 μm, 550 μJ, 15 fs) with a high numerical aperture parabola. The created longitudinal field in the focal region is intense enough to ionize atoms and accelerate electrons to 23 keV of energy from a low density oxygen gas. The characteristics of the electron beam are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]