Spectroscopy of betatron radiation emitted from laser-produced wakefield accelerated electrons.

ABSTRACT

X-ray betatron radiation is produced by oscillations of electrons in the intense focusing field of a laser-plasma accelerator. These hard x-rays show promise for use in femtosecond-scale time-resolved radiography of ultrafast processes. However, the spectral characteristics of betatron radiation have only been inferred from filter pack measurements. In order to achieve higher resolution spectral information about the betatron emission, we used an x-ray charge-coupled device to record the spectrum of betatron radiation, with a full width at half maximum resolution of 225 eV. In addition, we have recorded simultaneous electron and x-ray spectra along with x-ray images that allow for a determination of the betatron emission source size, as well as differences in the x-ray spectra as a function of the energy spectrum of accelerated electrons.