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Narrow band undulator radiation tuneable over the wavelength range of 150-260nm has been produced by short electron bunches from a 2 mm long laser plasma wakefield accelerator based on a 20TW femtosecond laser system. The number of photons measured is up to 9 × 106 per shot for a 100 period undulator, with a mean peak brilliance of 1 × 1018 photons/s/mrad²/mm²/0.1% bandwidth. Simulations estimate that the driving electron bunch r.m.s. duration is as short as 3 fs when the electron beam has energy of 120-130 MeV with the radiation pulse duration in the range of 50-100 fs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compton side-scattering has been used to simultaneously downshift the energy of keV to MeV energy range photons while attenuating their flux to enable single-shot, spectrally resolved, measurements of high flux X-ray sources to be undertaken. To demonstrate the technique a 1 mm thick pixelated cadmium telluride detector has been used to measure spectra of Compton side-scattered radiation from a Cobalt-60 laboratory source and a high flux, high peak brilliance X-ray source of betatron radiation from a laser-plasma wakefield accelerator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Advanced Laser–Plasma High-Energy Accelerators towards X-rays (ALPHA-X) programme at the University of Strathclyde is developing laser–plasma accelerators for the production of ultra-short high quality electron bunches. Focussing such LWFA bunches into an undulator, for example, requires particular attention to be paid to the emittance, electron bunch duration and energy spread. On the ALPHA-X wakefield accelerator beam line, a high intensity ultra-short pulse from a 30 TW Ti:Sapphire laser is focussed into a helium gas jet to produce femtosecond duration electron bunches in the range of 90–220 MeV. Measurements of the electron energy spectrum, obtained using a high resolution magnetic dipole spectrometer, show electron bunch r.m.s. energy spreads down to 0.5%. A pepper-pot mask is used to obtain transverse emittance measurements of a 128 ± 3 MeV mono-energetic electron beam. An average normalized emittance of ϵrms,x,y = 2.2 ± 0.7, 2.3 ± 0.6 π-mm-mrad is measured, which is comparable to that of a conventional radio-frequency accelerator. The best measured emittance of ϵrms,x, = 1.1 ± 0.1 π-mm-mrad corresponds to the resolution limit of the detection system. 3D particle-in-cell simulations of the ALPHA-X accelerator partially replicate the generation of low emittance, low energy spread bunches with charge less than 4 pC and gas flow simulations indicate both long density ramps and shock formation in the gas jet nozzle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gas-filled capillary discharge waveguides are a commonly employed medium in laser–plasma interaction applications, such as the laser wakefield accelerator, because they can simultaneously guide high-power laser pulses while acting as the medium for acceleration. In this paper, the production of both straight and linearly tapered capillaries using a femtosecond laser micromachining technique is presented. A tapered capillary is shown to possess a smooth variation in diameter (from 305 μm to 183 μm) along its entire 40 mm length, which would lead to a longitudinal plasma density gradient, thereby dramatically improving the laser–plasma interaction efficiency in applications. Efficient guiding with up to 82% energy transmission of the fundamental Gaussian mode of a low intensity, 50 fs duration laser pulse is shown for both types of capillary waveguide. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gas-filled capillary discharge waveguides are commonly used as media for plasma wakefield accelerators. We show that effective waveguides can be manufactured using a femtosecond laser micromachining technique to produce a linearly tapered plasma density, which enables the energy of the accelerator to be enhanced significantly. A laser guiding efficiency in excess of 82% at sub-relativistic intensities has been demonstrated in a 40 mm long capillary with a diameter tapering from 320 μm to 270 μm, which gives rise to an on-axis, time-averaged plasma density that varies from 1.0 × 1018 cm-3 to 1.6 × 1018 cm-3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the gas/plasma plume at the entrance of a gas-filled capillary discharge plasma waveguide in increasing the laser intensity has been investigated. Distinction is made between neutral gas and hot plasma plumes that, respectively, develop before and after discharge breakdown. Time-averaged measurements show that the on-axis plasma density of a fully expanded plasma plume over this region is similar to that inside the waveguide. Above the critical power, relativistic and ponderomotive self-focusing lead to an increase in the intensity, which can be nearly a factor of 2 compared with the case without a plume. When used as a laser plasma wakefield accelerator, the enhancement of intensity can lead to prompt electron injection very close to the entrance of the waveguide. Self-focusing occurs within two Rayleigh lengths of the waveguide entrance plane in the region, where the laser beam is converging. Analytical theory and numerical simulations show that, for a density of 3.0 × 1018 cm-3, the peak normalized laser vector potential, a0, increases from 1.0 to 1.85 close to the entrance plane of the capillary compared with a0 = 1.41 when the plume is neglected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]