Two interferometric techniques for converting a linearly polarized laser beam into a radially polarized beam with uniform azimuthal intensity are described. The techniques are based on the linear combination of orthogonally polarized beams, which have tailored intensity and phase profiles. Linearly polarized beams with intensity profiles tailored using a modified laser or an apodization filter are combined in separate experiments to produce radially polarized light. A beam with an extinction ratio of -21.7 dB and azimuthal intensity variations of less than +/-12% is produced using the modified laser output. The second technique uses circularly polarized light and a unique spiral phase delay plate to produce the required phase profile. When focused, a radially polarized beam has a net longitudinal field useful for particle acceleration and, perhaps, other unique applications.

Conversion of a linearly polarized CO(2) laser beam into a radially polarized beam is demonstrated with a novel double-interferometer system. The first Mach-Zehnder interferometer converts the linearly polarized input beam into two beams with sin(2) θ and cos(2) θ intensity profiles, where θ is the azimuthal angle. This is accomplished by using two spiral-phase-delay plates with opposite handedness in the two legs of the interferometer to impart a one-wave phase delay azimuthally across the face of the beams. After these beams are interfered with, the resulting beams are sent directly into the second Mach-Zehnder interferometer, where the polarization direction of one beam is rotated by 90°. The beams are then recombined at the output of the second interferometer with a polarization-sensitive beam splitter to generate a radially polarized beam. The output beam is ≈92% radially polarized and contains ≈85% of the input power. This system will be used in upcoming laser particle acceleration experiments.

No abstract

Staging of two laser-driven, relativistic electron accelerators has been demonstrated for the first time in a proof-of-principle experiment, whereby two distinct and serial laser accelerators acted on an electron beam in a coherently cumulative manner. Output from a CO2 laser was split into two beams to drive two inverse free electron lasers (IFEL) separated by 2.3 m. The first IFEL served to bunch the electrons into approximately 3 fs microbunches, which were rephased with the laser wave in the second IFEL. This represents a crucial step towards the development of practical laser-driven electron accelerators.

In the use of spark gaps as switching devices, it is desirable to maximize the power delivered to the load and to minimize the power deposited in the switch; that is, it is desirable for the resistance of the switch to be negligible as compared to the load. The hydrodynamic time scale for expansion of the arc in a spark gap and hence for the reduction in its resistance to a small value is tens to hundreds of nanoseconds. Therefore, with current pulses of duration of a few hundred nanoseconds or less, the resistance ofthe spark gap may be a significant fraction of that of the load. In this paper, we report on measurements that determine the resistance of the arc in a fully diagnosed laser-triggered spark gap. The spark gap switches a l00-ns, 1. 5-n waterline into a I. 5-n load resistor. A capacitive voltage divider housed within the switch enclosure measures the voltage drop across the switch, a current-viewing resistor measures the current, and an interferometer measures the diameter of the plasma column, a value required to calculate its inductance. The resistance of the arc is found to remain in excess of 0.1-0.2 n for the duration of the current pulse for a variety of switch gas mixtures. The resistance decreases with increasing charging voltage on the waterline at the time of triggering and decreases with decreasing average molecular weight of the gas mixture in which the arc is sustained.

Plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) has demonstrated the ability to produce very high gradients to accelerate electrons and positrons. In PWFA, a drive bunch of charged particles passes through a uniform plasma, thereby generating a wakefield that accelerates a witness bunch traveling behind the drive bunch. This process works well for electrons, but much less so for positrons due to the positive charge attracting rather than repealing the plasma electrons, which leads to reduced acceleration gradient, halo formation, and emittance growth. This problem can be alleviated by having the positron beam travel through a hollow plasma channel. Presented are modeling results for producing 10-100 cm long hollow plasma channels suitable for positron PWFA. These channels are created utilizing laser-induced gas breakdown in hydrogen gas. The results show that hollow channels with plasma densities of order 10 16 cm À3 and inner channel radii of order 20 m are possible using currently available terawatt-level lasers. At these densities and radii, preliminary positron PWFA modeling indicates that longitudinal electric fields on axis can exceed 3 GV=m.

A plasma-wakefield experiment is presented where two 60 MeV subpicosecond electron bunches are sent into a plasma produced by a capillary discharge. Both bunches are shorter than the plasma wavelength, and the phase of the second bunch relative to the plasma wave is adjusted by tuning the plasma density. It is shown that the second bunch experiences a 150 MeV/m loaded accelerating gradient in the wakefield driven by the first bunch. This is the first experiment to directly demonstrate high-gradient, controlled acceleration of a short-pulse trailing electron bunch in a high-density plasma.

A simple, passive method for producing an adjustable train of picosecond electron bunches is demonstrated. The key component of this method is an electron beam mask consisting of an array of parallel wires that selectively spoils the beam emittance. This mask is positioned in a high magnetic dispersion, low beta-function region of the beam line. The incoming electron beam striking the mask has a time/energy correlation that corresponds to a time/position correlation at the mask location. The mask pattern is transformed into a time pattern or train of bunches when the dispersion is brought back to zero downstream of the mask. Results are presented of a proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating this novel technique that was performed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Accelerator Test Facility. This technique allows for easy tailoring of the bunch train for a particular application, including varying the bunch width and spacing, and enabling the generation of a trailing witness bunch.