Speaker
Petr Valenta
Description
See the full Abstract at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2018ABS/pdf/P2.2031.pdf
On high-quality electron beam generated by breaking wake wave in
near-critical density plasmas
P. Valenta1,2 , O. Klimo1,2 , S.V. Bulanov1,3 , G. Korn1
1 ELI-Beamlines, Institute of Physics, 182 21 Prague, Czech Republic
2 Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in
Prague, 115 19 Prague, Czech Republic
3 Kansai Photon Science Institute, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science
and Technology, Kizugawa, Kyoto 619-0215, Japan
High quality and stable sub-relativistic electron sources are of great demand for various ap-
plications in industry and material science [1, 2]. The electron sources in such regime have been
previously produced by downscaling a laser-wakefield accelerator or using high-repetition rate
laser-plasma accelerators [3, 4, 5].
Here we present a novel method based on the breaking of non-linear Langmuir waves driven
by a short intense laser pulse in the near-critical density plasmas. We observe a formation of a
thin layer of electrons that are expelled from the target at the plasma-vacuum interface. High
quality of the electron bunch is provided using a steep density profile on the target rear side
and properly timed breaking of the wake wave. The electron beam is quasi-monoenergetic with
several MeV energy range and its divergence depends on the curvature of the plasma wave.
Properties of the electron beam (divergence, energy distribution, number of electrons) can be
controlled by adjusting the shape of the target density distribution and the parameters of the
laser pulse driver. We demonstrate this effect numerically using multi-dimensional large-scale
particle-in-cell simulations and provide analytical formulas that describe the properties of the
electron bunch.
References
[1] G. Sciaini and R.J.D. Miller, Rep. Prog. Phys. 74 (2011)
[2] Z.-H. He et al., Sci. Rep. 6 (2016)
[3] B. Beaurepaire, A. Lifschitz and J. Faure, New Journal of Physics 16, 2 (2014)
[4] D. Guenot et al., Nature Photonics 11 (2017)
[5] D. Gustas et al., Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 21, 1 (2018)
