Monoenergetic energy doubling in a hybrid laser-plasma wakefield accelerator.

ABSTRACT

An ultracompact laser-plasma-generated, fs-scale electron double bunch system can be injected into a high-density driver/witness-type plasma wakefield accelerator afterburner stage to boost the witness electrons monoenergetically to energies far beyond twice their initial energy on the GeV scale. The combination of conservation of monoenergetic phase-space structure and fs duration with radial electric plasma fields E(r)∼100 GV/m leads to dramatic transversal witness compression and unprecedented charge densities. It seems feasible to upscale and implement the scheme to future accelerator systems.