Resonantly Enhanced Betatron Hard X-rays from Ionization Injected Electrons in a Laser Plasma Accelerator.

Ultrafast betatron x-ray emission from electron oscillations in laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) has been widely investigated as a promising source. Betatron x-rays are usually produced via self-injected electron beams, which are not controllable and are not optimized for x-ray yields. Here, we present a new method for bright hard x-ray emission via ionization injection from the K-shell electrons of nitrogen into the accelerating bucket. A total photon yield of 8 × 10(8)/shot and 10(8 )photons with energy greater than 110 keV is obtained. The yield is 10 times higher than that achieved with self-injection mode in helium under similar laser parameters. The simulation suggests that ionization-injected electrons are quickly accelerated to the driving laser region and are subsequently driven into betatron resonance. The present scheme enables the single-stage betatron radiation from LWFA to be extended to bright γ-ray radiation, which is beyond the capability of 3(rd) generation synchrotrons.

Demonstration of self-truncated ionization injection for GeV electron beams.

Ionization-induced injection mechanism was introduced in 2010 to reduce the laser intensity threshold for controllable electron trapping in laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA). However, usually it generates electron beams with continuous energy spectra. Subsequently, a dual-stage target separating the injection and acceleration processes was regarded as essential to achieve narrow energy-spread electron beams by ionization injection. Recently, we numerically proposed a self-truncation scenario of the ionization injection process based upon overshooting of the laser-focusing in plasma which can reduce the electron injection length down to a few hundred micrometers, leading to accelerated beams with extremely low energy-spread in a single-stage. Here, using 100 TW-class laser pulses we report experimental observations of this injection scenario in centimeter-long plasma leading to the generation of narrow energy-spread GeV electron beams, demonstrating its robustness and scalability. Compared with the self-injection and dual-stage schemes, the self-truncated ionization injection generates higher-quality electron beams at lower intensities and densities, and is therefore promising for practical applications.

Spectral characterization of laser-driven solid-based high harmonics in the coherent wake emission regime.

Laser-produced surface high-harmonic generation is an attractive source of extreme ultraviolet radiation due to its coherent properties and high peak power. By operating at subrelativistic laser intensities in the coherent wake emission regime, the harmonic spectrum was experimentally studied versus laser properties. At higher laser intensities (>10(17) W/cm(2)) a higher spectral cutoff was observed, with accompanying blueshifting and spectral broadening of the individual orders. A model based on an expanding critical surface provides qualitative agreement with the observations.

Low-emittance electron bunches from a laser-plasma accelerator measured using single-shot x-ray spectroscopy.

X-ray spectroscopy is used to obtain single-shot information on electron beam emittance in a low-energy-spread 0.5 GeV-class laser-plasma accelerator. Measurements of betatron radiation from 2 to 20 keV used a CCD and single-photon counting techniques. By matching x-ray spectra to betatron radiation models, the electron bunch radius inside the plasma is estimated to be ~0.1 µm. Combining this with simultaneous electron spectra, normalized transverse emittance is estimated to be as low as 0.1 mm mrad, consistent with three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Correlations of the bunch radius with electron beam parameters are presented.

Long-range persistence of femtosecond modulations on laser-plasma-accelerated electron beams.

Laser plasma accelerators have produced femtosecond electron bunches with a relative energy spread ranging from 100% to a few percent. Simulations indicate that the measured energy spread can be dominated by a correlated spread, with the slice spread significantly lower. Measurements of coherent optical transition radiation are presented for broad-energy-spread beams with laser-induced density and momentum modulations. The long-range (meter-scale) observation of coherent optical transition radiation indicates that the slice energy spread is below the percent level to preserve the modulations.

Calibration of a microchannel plate based extreme ultraviolet grazing incident spectrometer at the Advanced Light Source.

We present the design and calibration of a microchannel plate based extreme ultraviolet spectrometer. Calibration was performed at the Advance Light Source (ALS) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). This spectrometer will be used to record the single shot spectrum of radiation emitted by the tapered hybrid undulator (THUNDER) undulator installed at the LOASIS GeV-class laser-plasma-accelerator. The spectrometer uses an aberration-corrected concave grating with 1200 lines/mm covering 11-62 nm and a microchannel plate detector with a CsI coated photocathode for increased quantum efficiency in the extreme ultraviolet. A touch screen interface controls the grating angle, aperture size, and placement of the detector in vacuum, allowing for high-resolution measurements over the entire spectral range.

Directional laser-driven ion acceleration from microspheres.

Laser-driven ion acceleration is capable of generating ion beams of MeV energy exhibiting unique attributes such as ultralow emittance. Research is still focusing on fundamental laser-target interactions to control further beam attributes. In this Letter we present the observation of directional ion acceleration of irradiated spherical targets through proton imaging. This feature, together with an earlier observed quasimonoenergetic proton burst makes spherical targets extremely attractive candidates for high quality, high repetition rate sources of laser accelerated particles.

Radiation-pressure acceleration of ion beams driven by circularly polarized laser pulses.

We present experimental studies on ion acceleration from ultrathin diamondlike carbon foils irradiated by ultrahigh contrast laser pulses of energy 0.7 J focused to peak intensities of 5x10(19) W/cm2. A reduction in electron heating is observed when the laser polarization is changed from linear to circular, leading to a pronounced peak in the fully ionized carbon spectrum at the optimum foil thickness of 5.3 nm. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that those C6+ ions are for the first time dominantly accelerated in a phase-stable way by the laser radiation pressure.

The Thomson deflectometer: a novel use of the Thomson spectrometer as a transient field and plasma diagnostic.

Laser accelerated proton beams have been used for field characterization in expanding plasmas. The Thomson parabola spectrometer, as a charged particles analyzer, also allows precise measurement of the charged particles' trajectories. The proton's deflections by fast changing plasma fields can be measured with the new design of the Thomson parabola spectrometer and, therefore, it can be applied for proton deflectometry. It is shown that from resulting spectrograms the plasma field dynamics can be reconstructed with high temporal resolution. In a proof-of-principle experiment, a weakly relativistic plasma expansion is studied as an example.

Proton acceleration in the electrostatic sheaths of hot electrons governed by strongly relativistic laser-absorption processes.

Two different laser energy absorption mechanisms at the front side of a laser-irradiated foil have been found to occur, such that two distinct relativistic electron beams with different properties are produced. One beam arises from the ponderomotively driven electrons propagating in the laser propagation direction, and the other is the result of electrons driven by resonance absorption normal to the target surface. These properties become evident at the rear surface of the target, where they give rise to two spatially separated sources of ions with distinguishable characteristics when ultrashort (40fs) high-intensity laser pulses irradiate a foil at 45 degrees incidence. The laser pulse intensity and the contrast ratio are crucial. One can establish conditions such that one or the other of the laser energy absorption mechanisms is dominant, and thereby one can control the ion acceleration scenarios. The observations are confirmed by particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations.

Quasimonoenergetic deuteron bursts produced by ultraintense laser pulses.

We report on the generation and laser acceleration of bunches of energetic deuterons with a small energy spread at about 2 MeV. This quasimonoenergetic peak within the ion energy spectrum was observed when heavy-water microdroplets were irradiated with ultrashort laser pulses of about 40 fs duration and high (10(-8)) temporal contrast, at an intensity of 10(19) W/cm(2). The results can be explained by a simple physical model related to spatial separation of two ion species within a finite-volume target. The production of quasimonoenergetic ions is a long-standing goal in laser-particle acceleration; it could have diverse applications such as in medicine or in the development of future compact ion accelerators.