Abstract
Coherent emission coming from relativistic charged bunches is of great interest in a wide range of user-oriented applications and high-resolution diagnostics. The complete characterization ...of such emission is therefore important in view of a complete understanding of its potential. Here we present a complete temporally-resolved characterization of the radiation emitted by ultra-short relativistic electron bunches using a temporal diagnostic based on electro-optical sampling with a few tens fs of temporal resolution. We have characterized, for the first time to our knowledge, the evolution of the radiation (in THz range) both in amplitude and direction of propagation by varying the detection (i.e. the observer) position from the near to the far field (FF) range. Results show that in the near-field regime the emitted radiation propagates collinearly with the electron beam; while, approaching the FF regime, the radiation behaves as the classical Cherenkov radiation.
In the field of beam physics, two frontier topics have taken center stage due to their potential to enable new approaches to discovery in a wide swath of science. These areas are: advanced, high ...gradient acceleration techniques, and x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs). Further, there is intense interest in the marriage of these two fields, with the goal of producing a very compact XFEL. In this context, recent advances in high gradient radio-frequency cryogenic copper structure research have opened the door to the use of surface electric fields between 250 and 500 MV m−1. Such an approach is foreseen to enable a new generation of photoinjectors with six-dimensional beam brightness beyond the current state-of-the-art by well over an order of magnitude. This advance is an essential ingredient enabling an ultra-compact XFEL (UC-XFEL). In addition, one may accelerate these bright beams to GeV scale in less than 10 m. Such an injector, when combined with inverse free electron laser-based bunching techniques can produce multi-kA beams with unprecedented beam quality, quantified by 50 nm-rad normalized emittances. The emittance, we note, is the effective area in transverse phase space (x, p x /m e c) or (y, p y /m e c) occupied by the beam distribution, and it is relevant to achievable beam sizes as well as setting a limit on FEL wavelength. These beams, when injected into innovative, short-period (1-10 mm) undulators uniquely enable UC-XFELs having footprints consistent with university-scale laboratories. We describe the architecture and predicted performance of this novel light source, which promises photon production per pulse of a few percent of existing XFEL sources. We review implementation issues including collective beam effects, compact x-ray optics systems, and other relevant technical challenges. To illustrate the potential of such a light source to fundamentally change the current paradigm of XFELs with their limited access, we examine possible applications in biology, chemistry, materials, atomic physics, industry, and medicine-including the imaging of virus particles-which may profit from this new model of performing XFEL science.
An optimal first-order global regularity theory, in spaces of functions defined in terms of oscillations, is established for solutions to Dirichlet problems for the
p
-Laplace equation and system, ...with the right-hand side in divergence form. The exact mutual dependence among the regularity of the solution, of the datum on the right-hand side, and of the boundary of the domain in these spaces is exhibited. A comprehensive formulation of our results is given in terms of Campanato seminorms. New regularity results in customary function spaces, such as Hölder,
BMO
and
VMO
spaces, follow as a consequence. Importantly, the conclusions are new even in the linear case when
p
=
2
, and hence the differential operator is the plain Laplacian. Yet in this classical linear setting, our contribution completes and augments the celebrated Schauder theory in Hölder spaces. A distinctive trait of our results is their sharpness, which is demonstrated by a family of apropos examples.
In this note we collect some very recent pointwise bounds for the gradient of solutions, and for the solutions themselves, to the p-Laplace system with right-hand side in divergence form. Both ...estimates inside the domain for local solutions, and global estimates for solutions to boundary value problems are discussed. Their formulation involves sharp maximal operators, whose properties enable us to translate some aspects of the elliptic regularity theory into a merely harmonic–analytic framework. As a consequence, a flexible, comprehensive approach to estimates for solutions to the p-Laplace system for a broad class of norms is derived. In particular, global estimates under minimal boundary regularity are presented.
Transition and diffraction radiation from charged particles is commonly used for diagnostics purposes in accelerator facilities as well as THz sources for spectroscopy applications. Therefore, an ...accurate analysis of the emission process and the transport optics is crucial to properly characterize the source and precisely retrieve beam parameters. In this regard, we have developed a new algorithm, based on Zemax, to simulate both transition and diffraction radiation as generated by relativistic electron bunches, therefore considering collective effects. In particular, unlike other previous works, we take into account electron beam physical size and transverse momentum, reproducing some effects visible on the produced radiation, not observable in a single electron analysis. The simulation results have been compared with two experiments showing an excellent agreement.
Next-generation plasma-based accelerators can push electron bunches to gigaelectronvolt energies within centimetre distances1,2. The plasma, excited by a driver pulse, generates large electric fields ...that can efficiently accelerate a trailing witness bunch3–5, enabling the realization of laboratory-scale applications ranging from high-energy colliders6 to ultrabright light sources7. So far, several experiments have demonstrated large accelerations8–10 but the resulting beam quality, particularly the energy spread, is still far from state-of-the-art conventional accelerators. Here we show the results of a beam-driven plasma acceleration experiment where we used an electron bunch as a driver followed by an ultrashort witness bunch. By setting a positive energy chirp on the witness bunch, its longitudinal phase space is rotated during acceleration, resulting in an ultralow energy spread that is even lower than the spread at the plasma entrance. This result will significantly impact the optimization of the plasma acceleration process and its implementation in forthcoming compact machines for user-oriented applications.In a beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator, the energy spread of an electron bunch is reduced with respect to the plasma entrance, which is achieved through setting a positive energy chirp that rotates the bunches’ longitudinal phase space.
Highly energetic electrons are generated at the early phases of the interaction of short-pulse high-intensity lasers with solid targets. These escaping particles are identified as the essential core ...of picosecond-scale phenomena such as laser-based acceleration, surface manipulation, generation of intense magnetic fields and electromagnetic pulses. Increasing the number of the escaping electrons facilitate the late time processes in all cases. Up to now only indirect evidences of these important forerunners have been recorded, thus no detailed study of the governing mechanisms was possible. Here we report, for the first time, direct time-dependent measurements of energetic electrons ejected from solid targets by the interaction with a short-pulse high-intensity laser. We measured electron bunches up to 7 nanocoulombs charge, picosecond duration and 12 megaelectronvolts energy. Our 'snapshots' capture their evolution with an unprecedented temporal resolution, demonstrat- ing a significant boost in charge and energy of escaping electrons when increasing the geometrical target curvature. These results pave the way toward significant improvement in laser acceleration of ions using shaped targets allowing the future development of small scale laser-ion accelerators.
The development of compact accelerator facilities providing high-brightness beams is one of the most challenging tasks in the field of next-generation compact and cost affordable particle ...accelerators, to be used in many fields for industrial, medical, and research applications. The ability to shape the beam longitudinal phase space, in particular, plays a key role in achieving high-peak brightness. Here we present a new approach that allows us to tune the longitudinal phase space of a high-brightness beam by means of plasma wakefields. The electron beam passing through the plasma drives large wakefields that are used to manipulate the time-energy correlation of particles along the beam itself. We experimentally demonstrate that such a solution is highly tunable by simply adjusting the density of the plasma and can be used to imprint or remove any correlation onto the beam. This is a fundamental requirement when dealing with largely time-energy correlated beams coming from future plasma accelerators.