Laser-driven plasma accelerators provide tabletop sources of relativistic electron bunches and femtosecond x-ray pulses, but usually require petawatt-class solid-state-laser pulses of wavelength λ
~ ...1 μm. Longer-λ
lasers can potentially accelerate higher-quality bunches, since they require less power to drive larger wakes in less dense plasma. Here, we report on a self-injecting plasma accelerator driven by a long-wave-infrared laser: a chirped-pulse-amplified CO
laser (λ
≈ 10 μm). Through optical scattering experiments, we observed wakes that 4-ps CO
pulses with < 1/2 terawatt (TW) peak power drove in hydrogen plasma of electron density down to 4 × 10
cm
(1/100 atmospheric density) via a self-modulation (SM) instability. Shorter, more powerful CO
pulses drove wakes in plasma down to 3 × 10
cm
that captured and accelerated plasma electrons to relativistic energy. Collimated quasi-monoenergetic features in the electron output marked the onset of a transition from SM to bubble-regime acceleration, portending future higher-quality accelerators driven by yet shorter, more powerful pulses.
The generation of X-rays and γ-rays based on synchrotron radiation from free electrons, emitted in magnet arrays such as undulators, forms the basis of much of modern X-ray science. This approach has ...the drawback of requiring very high energy, up to the multi-GeV-scale, electron beams, to obtain the required photon energy. Due to the limit in accelerating gradients in conventional particle accelerators, reaching high energy typically demands use of instruments exceeding 100's of meters in length. Compact, less costly, monochromatic X-ray sources based on very high field acceleration and very short period undulators, however, may enable diverse, paradigm-changing X-ray applications ranging from novel X-ray therapy techniques to active interrogation of sensitive materials, by making them accessible in energy reach, cost and size. Such compactness and enhanced energy reach may be obtained by an all-optical approach, which employs a laser-driven high gradient accelerator based on inverse free electron laser (IFEL), followed by a collision point for inverse Compton scattering (ICS), a scheme where a laser is used to provide undulator fields. We present an experimental proof-of-principle of this approach, where a TW-class CO
laser pulse is split in two, with half used to accelerate a high quality electron beam up to 84 MeV through the IFEL interaction, and the other half acts as an electromagnetic undulator to generate up to 13 keV X-rays via ICS. These results demonstrate the feasibility of this scheme, which can be joined with other techniques such as laser recirculation to yield very compact photon sources, with both high peak and average brilliance, and with energies extending from the keV to MeV scale. Further, use of the IFEL acceleration with the ICS interaction produces a train of high intensity X-ray pulses, thus enabling a unique tool synchronized with a laser pulse for ultra-fast strobe, pump-probe experimental scenarios.
Inverse Compton scattering of laser photons by ultrarelativistic electron beam provides polarized x- to γ -ray pulses due to the Doppler blueshifting. Nonlinear electrodynamics in the ...relativistically intense linearly polarized laser field changes the radiation kinetics established during the Compton interaction. These are due to the induced figure-8 motion, which introduces an overall redshift in the radiation spectrum, with the concomitant emission of higher order harmonics. To experimentally analyze the strong field physics associated with the nonlinear electron-laser interaction, clear modifications to the angular and wavelength distributions of x rays are observed. The relativistic photon wave field is provided by the ps CO2 laser of peak normalized vector potential of 0.5<aL<0.7 , which due to the quadratic dependence of the strength of nonlinear phenomena on aL permits sufficient effects not observed in past 2nd harmonic study with aL≈0.3 laser , Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 054802 (2006). The angular spectral characteristics are revealed using K -, L -edge, and high energy attenuation filters. The observation indicates existence of the electrons’ longitudinal motion through frequency redshifting understood as the mass shift effect. Thus, the 3rd harmonic radiation has been observed containing on-axis x-ray component that is directly associated with the induced figure-8 motion. These are further supported by an initial evidence of off-axis 2nd harmonic radiation produced in a circularly polarized laser wave field. Total x-ray photon number per pulse, scattered by 65 MeV electron beam of 0.3 nC, at the interaction point is measured to be approximately 109 .
Compact, table-top sized accelerators are key to improving access to high-quality beams for use in industry, medicine and academic research. Among laser-based accelerating schemes, the inverse ...free-electron laser (IFEL) enjoys unique advantages. By using an undulator magnetic field in combination with a laser, GeV m(-1) gradients may be sustained over metre-scale distances using laser intensities several orders of magnitude less than those used in laser wake-field accelerators. Here we show for the first time the capture and high-gradient acceleration of monoenergetic electron beams from a helical IFEL. Using a modest intensity (~10(13) W cm(-2)) laser pulse and strongly tapered 0.5 m long undulator, we demonstrate >100 MV m(-1) accelerating gradient, >50 MeV energy gain and excellent output beam quality. Our results pave the way towards compact, tunable GeV IFEL accelerators for applications such as driving soft X-ray free-electron lasers and producing γ-rays by inverse Compton scattering.
High-Gain Harmonic-Generation Free-Electron Laser L.-H. Yu; Babzien, M.; Ben-Zvi, I. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
08/2000, Letnik:
289, Številka:
5481
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A high-gain harmonic-generation free-electron laser is demonstrated. Our approach uses a laser-seeded free-electron laser to produce amplified, longitudinally coherent, Fourier transform-limited ...output at a harmonic of the seed laser. A seed carbon dioxide laser at a wavelength of 10.6 micrometers produced saturated, amplified free-electron laser output at the second-harmonic wavelength, 5.3 micrometers. The experiment verifies the theoretical foundation for the technique and prepares the way for the application of this technique in the vacuum ultraviolet region of the spectrum, with the ultimate goal of extending the approach to provide an intense, highly coherent source of hard x-rays.
PDF
