Search

Matched beam loading in laser wakefield acceleration, characterizing the state of flattening the accelerating electric field along the bunch, leads to the minimization of energy spread at high-bunch charges. Here, we experimentally demonstrate by independently controlling injected charge and accelerating gradients, using the self-truncated ionization injection scheme, that minimal energy spread coincides with a reduction of the normalized beam divergence. With the simultaneous confirmation of the micrometer-small beam radius at the plasma exit, deduced from betatron radiation spectroscopy, we attribute this effect to the minimization of chromatic betatron decoherence. These findings are supported by rigorous three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations tracking self-consistently particle trajectories from injection, acceleration until beam extraction to vacuum. We conclude that beam-loaded laser wakefield acceleration enables highest longitudinal and transverse phase space densities.

We summarize oral contributions presented in Working Group (WG) 1 of the European Advanced Accelerator Workshop (EAAC). Working Group 1 is titled ’Electron Beams from Plasma’ and included presentations and discussions on the following subjects: laser- and beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration, recent experimental results and planned experiments, single and multi drive laser pulses (or particle bunches), external and self-injection techniques, staging as well as advanced beam control and manipulation.

Extreme field gradients intrinsic to relativistic laser plasma interactions enable compact MeV proton accelerators with unique bunch characteristics. Yet, direct control of the proton beam profile is usually not possible. So far, only complex micro-engineering of the relativistic plasma accelerator itself and limited adoption of conventional beam optics provided access to global beam parameters that define propagation. We present a novel, counter-intuitive all-optical approach to imprint detailed spatial information from the driving laser pulse to the proton bunch. The concept was motivated by an effect initially observed in an experiment dedicated to laser-driven proton acceleration from a renewable micrometer sized cryogenic Hydrogen jet target at the 150 TW Draco laser at HZDR. A compact, recollimating single plasma mirror was used to enhance the temporal laser contrast, which could be monitored on a single-shot base by means of self-referenced spectral interferometry with extended time excursion (SRSI-ETE) at unprecedented dynamic and temporal range. Unexpectedly, the accelerated proton beam profile showed in this experiment prominent features of the collimated laser beam, such as the shadow of obstacles inserted deliberately in the beam. In a series of further experiments, the spatial profile of the energetic proton bunch was found to exhibit identical features as the fraction of the laser pulse passing around a target of limited size. The formation of quasi-static electric fields in the beam path by ionization of residual gas in the experimental chamber results in asynchronous information transfer between the laser pulse and the naturally delayed proton bunch. Such information transfer between the laser pulse and the naturally delayed proton bunch is attributed to the formation of quasi-static electric fields in the beam path by ionization of residual gas. Essentially acting as a programmable memory, these fields provide access to a new level of proton beam manipulation.

Journal of Instrumentation 14(09), P09025 - P09025 (2019). doi:10.1088/1748-0221/14/09/P09025, As a basic diagnostic tool, scintillation screens are employed in particle acceleratorsto detect charged particles. In extension to the recent revision on the calibration of scintillationscreens commonly applied in the context of plasma acceleration [T. Kurz et al.,Rev. Sci. Instrum.89(2018) 093303], here we present the charge calibration of three DRZ screens (Std, Plus, High), whichpromise to offer similar spatial resolution to other screen types whilst reaching higher conversionefficiencies. The calibration was performed at the Electron Linac for beams with high Brilliance andlow Emittance (ELBE) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, which delivers picosecond-long beams of up to 40 MeV energy. Compared to the most sensitive screen, Kodak BioMAX MS,of the aforementioned recent investigation by Kurz et al., the sample with highest yield in thiscampaign, DRZ High, revealed a 30% increase in light yield. The detection threshold with thesescreens was found to be below 10 pC/mm2. For higher charge-densities (several nC/mm2) saturationeffects were observed. In contrast to the recent reported work, the DRZ screens were more robust,demonstrating higher durability under the same high level of charge deposition., Published by Inst. of Physics, London

We report initial observations of coherent optical transition radiation interferometry (COTRI) patterns generated by microbunched electrons from laser-driven plasma accelerators (LPAs). These are revealed in the angular distribution patterns obtained by a CCD camera with the optics focused at infinity, or the far-field, viewing a Wartski two-foil interferometer. The beam divergences deduced by comparison to results from an analytical model are sub-mrad, and they are smaller than the ensemble vertical beam divergences measured at the downstream screen of the electron spectrometer. The transverse sizes of the beamlet images were obtained with focus at the object, or near field, and were in the few-micron regime as reported by LaBerge et al. The enhancements in intensity are significant relative to incoherent optical transition radiation (OTR) enabling multiple cameras to view each shot. We present two-foil interferometry effects coherently enhanced in both the 100-TW LPA at 215 MeV energy at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and the PW LPA at 1.0-GeV energy at the University of Texas-Austin. A transverse emittance estimate is reported for a microbunched beamlet example generated within the plasma bubble., 5 pp

Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) has emerged as a promising concept for the next generation of high energy electron accelerators. The acceleration medium is provided by a target that creates a local well-defined gas-density profile inside a vacuum vessel. Target development and analysis of the resulting gas-density profiles is an important aspect in the further development of LWFA. Gas-jet targets are widely used in regimes where relatively high electron densities over short interaction lengths are required (up to several millimetres interaction length, plasma densities down to ~1018 cm-3). In this paper we report a precise characterisation of such gas-jet targets by a laser interferometry technique. We show that phase shifts down to 4 mrad can be resolved. Tomographic phase reconstruction enables detection of non-axisymmetrical gas-density profiles which indicates defects in cylindrical nozzles, analysis of slit-nozzles and nozzles with an induced shock-wave density step. In a direct comparison between argon and helium jets we show that it cannot automatically be assumed, as is often done, that a nozzle measured with argon will provide the same gas density with helium.

The design of an electron beam final focus system (FFS) aiming for high-flux laser-Thomson backscattering X-ray sources at ELBE is presented. A telescope system consisting of four permanent magnet based quadrupoles was found to have significantly less chromatic aberrations than a quadrupole doublet or triplet as commonly used. Focusing properties like the position of the focal plane and the spot size are retained for electron beam energies between 20 and 30 MeV by adjusting the position of the quadrupoles individually on a motorized stage. The desired ultra-short electron bunches require an increased relative energy spread up to a few percent and, thus, second order chromatic effects must be taken into account. We also present the design and test results of the permanent magnet quadrupoles. Adjustable shunts allow for correction of the field strength and compensation of deviations in the permanent magnet material. For a beam emittance of 13 mm mrad, we predict focal spot sizes of about 40 μm (rms) and divergences of about 10 mrad using the FFS.

Betatron radiation emitted by accelerated electrons in laser-wakefield accelerators can be used as a diagnostic tool to investigate electron dynamics during the acceleration process. We analyze the spectral characteristics of the emitted Betatron pattern utilizing a 2D x-ray imaging spectroscopy technique. Together with simultaneously recorded electron spectra and x-ray images, the betatron source size, thus the electron beam radius, can be deduced at every shot.

We describe optimizations of phase-retrieval algorithms for the reconstruction of the temporal structure of highly modulated electron bunches from coherent transition radiation (CTR) spectra. Synthetic data is used to quantitatively analyze capabilities and limitations of the approach taking into account realistic bandwidth constraints of ultra-broadband spectrometers. Established algorithms are combined with information from independent channels as charge calibrated electron spectra and absolute intensity calibration of the spectrometer. With this set of data, in principle available in experiments, we demonstrate a promising fidelity for the detailed analysis of substructured laser wakefield accelerated electron bunches.

The injection process of electrons into the plasma cavity in laser-wakefield accelerators is a nonlinear process that strongly influences the property of the accelerated electrons. During the acceleration electrons perform transverse (betatron) oscillations around the axis. This results in the emission of hard x-ray radiation (betatron radiation) whose characteristics depend directly on the dynamic of the accelerated electrons. Thus, betatron radiation can be utilized as a powerful diagnostic tool to investigate the acceleration process inside the wakefield. Here we describe our recent LWFA experiments deploying ionization induced injection technique carried out with the Draco Ti:Sapphire laser. We focused 30 fs short pulses down to a FWHM spot size of 19 μm resulting in a normalized vacuum laser intensity a0 = 3.3 on a gas target. The target, which was a supersonic gas jet, provided a flat plasma profile of 3mm length. By varying the plasma density from 2x10^18 cm^-3 to 5x10^18 cm^-3 and the laser pulse energy from 1.6 J to 3.4 J we were able to tune the electron bunch and betatron parameters. Electron spectra were obtained by acquiring an energy resolved and charge calibrated electron profile after detection from the beam axis by a permanent magnetic dipole. Simultaneously, a back-illuminated and deep-depleted CCD placed on axis recorded the emitted x-ray photons with energies up to 20keV. Equipped with an 2D spectroscopy technique based on single pixel absorption events, we reconstructed the corresponding energy resolved x-ray spectrum for every shot and deduced the betatron source size at the plasma exit. Combining the data of the electron and betatron spectrum, we compare the characteristics of the betatron spectra for different electron bunches. In our experiments we recorded a total number of 25x10^4 photons per shot within a divergence angle of 1 mrad and betatron radii in the order of 1 μm. Finally, we compare our results with simulated spectra from the parallel classical radiation calculator Clara2 that is based on the Lienard-Wiechert potentials.

A tunable source of intense ultra-short hard X-ray pulses represents a novel tool for the structural analysis of complex systems with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution. With the simultaneous availability of a high power short-pulse laser system this provides unique opportunities at the forefront of relativistic light–matter interactions. At Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) we demonstrated the principle of such a light source (PHOENIX – Photon Electron collider for Narrow bandwidth Intense X-Rays) by colliding picosecond electron bunches from the ELBE linear accelerator with counter-propagating femtosecond laser pulses from the 150 TW Draco Ti:Sapphire laser system. The generated narrowband X-rays are highly collimated and can be reliably adjusted from 12 keV to 20 keV by tuning the electron energy (24–30 MeV). Ensuring the spatial–temporal overlap at the interaction point and suppressing the Bremsstrahlung background a signal to noise ratio of greater than 300 was reached.

Thomson backscattering of intense laser pulses from relativistic electrons not only allows for the generation of bright x-ray pulses but also for the investigation of the complex particle dynamics at the interaction point. For this purpose a complete spectral characterization of a Thomson source powered by a compact linear electron accelerator is performed with unprecedented angular and energy resolution. A rigorous statistical analysis comparing experimental data to 3D simulations enables, e. g., the extraction of the angular distribution of electrons with 1.5% accuracy and, in total, provides predictive capability for the future high brightness hard x-ray source PHOENIX (photon electron collider for narrow bandwidth intense x rays) and potential gamma-ray sources.

In this article we present a theoretical investigation on an experimental design of a laser wakefield accelerator in which electron bunches from a photocathode radio frequency linac are injected into a capillary discharge plasma channel just in front of a few tens of terawatt drive laser pulse. The electron bunch, with a kinetic energy of 2.9 MeV and an energy chirp imposed by the linac, is magnetically compressed by a factor of 8 to a duration of 250 fs, and is magnetically focused into the plasma channel where it matches the spot size of the drive laser ([approximate]30 µm). The dynamics of the bunch, starting from the photocathode, through the linac, along the beam transportation line, through the magnetic compressor, and its focusing into the plasma channel are comprehensively simulated with the general particle tracer code. Further, we use our three-dimensional numerical codes to calculate the laser wakefield and to determine and optimize the trapping and acceleration of the injected bunch in the wakefield. We show that, injecting a 5 pC electron bunch of 250 fs duration, the experiment should deliver an electron bunch of approximately 744 MeV energy, with 1.1% relative energy spread, and with an extremely short duration (6 fs), after acceleration in a 5.4 cm long plasma channel

Recent advances in laser wakefield acceleration demonstrated the generation of extremely short (with a duration of a few femtoseconds) relativistic electron bunches with relatively low (of the order of couple of percent) energy spread. In this article we study the dynamics of such bunches in drift space (vacuum) and in channel-guided laser wakefields. Analytical solutions were found for the transverse coordinate of an electron and for the bunch envelope in the wakefield in the case of arbitrary change in the energy. Our results show strong bunch dynamics already on a millimeter scale propagation distance both in plasma and in vacuum. When the bunch propagates in vacuum, its transverse sizes grow considerably; the same is observed for the normalized bunch emittance that worsens the focusability of the bunch. A scheme of two-stage laser wakefield accelerator with small drift space between the stages is proposed. It is found that fast longitudinal betatron phase mixing occurs in a femtosecond bunch when it propagates along the wakefield axis. When bunch propagates off axis, strong bunch decoherence and fast emittance degradation due to the finite bunch length was observed.

We present a fully analytic model of an all-optical free electron laser (OFEL) undulator based on the Traveling-Wave Thomson-Scattering (TWTS) scheme. The TWTS undulator provides for sub-mm undulator wavelengths, does not require any material or plasma to generate or contain the undulator field and allows for sub-meter saturation lengths. Starting from a fully analytic description of the three-dimensional TWTS field we derive the OFEL pendulum equation for electrons in the TWTS field and discuss the constraints on laser and electron pulse parameters that have to be fulfilled for OFEL operation. We conclude in applying the TWTS OFEL to the realization of compact free electron laser sources at 13.5 nm and 0.2 nm using laser and electron sources in reach of present day technologies.

Measured Thomson-backscattering X-ray spectra recorded as a function of the observation angle and quantitatively reproduced in simulations are presented. A traveling wave scheme is proposed to increase the yield and may allow for all-optical free-electron laser operation.

Nature Communications 12(1), 2895 (2021). doi:10.1038/s41467-021-23000-7, Particle accelerators based on laser- or electron-driven plasma waves promise compact sources for relativistic electron bunches. Here, Kurz and Heinemann et al. demonstrate a hybrid two-stage configuration, combining the individual features of both accelerating schemes., Published by Nature Publishing Group UK, [London]

Nature Communications 9(1), 5292 (2018). doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07756-z, Extreme field gradients intrinsic to relativistic laser-interactions with thin solid targets enable compact MeV proton accelerators with unique bunch characteristics. Yet, direct control of the proton beam profile is usually not possible. Here we present a readily applicable all-optical approach to imprint detailed spatial information from the driving laser pulse onto the proton bunch. In a series of experiments, counter-intuitively, the spatial profile of the energetic proton bunch was found to exhibit identical structures as the fraction of the laser pulse passing around a target of limited size. Such information transfer between the laser pulse and the naturally delayed proton bunch is attributed to the formation of quasi-static electric fields in the beam path by ionization of residual gas. Essentially acting as a programmable memory, these fields provide access to a higher level of proton beam manipulation., Published by Nature Publishing Group UK, [London]