Diode pumps for future laser plasma accelerators: perspectives from research and industry

Abstract

Diode laser pumps are a critical technology for advanced accelerators based on laser plasma accelerators, and essential system components when higher repetition rate operation is needed. They are also a significant cost element in larger systems. An overview of progress in research and industry is presented, summarizing status of the technology, focusing on efforts to economically scale peak and average power and to enable new options in plasma acceleration, for example the use of thulium-doped gain media with its pumping wavelength at 780 nm. Development needs to support the accelerator community will be collected, covering topics such as efforts to lower cost in €/W by raising the diode laser output power, to increase repetition rates to 100 Hz and even up to 1 kHz, to scale TRL of emerging diode laser technologies, and to ensure low-failure-rate operation of large systems.