Quasi-monoenergetic electron beams from a few-terawatt laser driven plasma acceleration using a nitrogen gas jet

Abstract

An experimental investigation on laser plasma acceleration of electrons has been carried out using 3 TW, 45 fs duration titanium sapphire laser pulse interaction with nitrogen gas jet at intensity of 2×10 18 W/cm 2 . We have observed stable generation of well collimated electron beam with divergence and pointing variation ~ 10 mrad from the nitrogen gas jet plasma at an optimum plasma density around 3×10 19 cm -3 . The energy spectrum of the electron beam was quasi-monoenergetic with average peak energy and charge around 25MeV and 30 pC respectively. The results will be useful for better understanding and control of ionization injection and laser wakefield acceleration of electrons in high-Z gases and also to develop practical laser wakefield accelerators for various applications including injectors for high energy accelerators.

Direct laser acceleration of electrons in a high-Z gas target and the effect of threshold plasma density on electron beam generation

“…N 2 and Ar etc. have been explored for comparison purpose and particularly N 2 which is readily available and cheap [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. In few studies generation of quasimonoenergetic electron beams with peak energy in the range of few hundreds of MeV has been demonstrated [43][44][45][46].…”

“…Pure high-Z gases are not preferred for laser plasma acceleration experiments, primarily due to the inherent drawback of the ionization induced defocusing of the laser pulse [37]. Still, electron acceleration in high-Z gases such as N 2 , Ar and others have been explored for comparison purposes and particularly N 2 is preferred since it is readily available and cheap [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. In a few studies, the generation of quasi-monoenergetic electron beams with peak energy in the range of few hundreds of MeV have been demonstrated [44][45][46][47].…”

“…He gas-jet targets have been extensively used with short laser pulses operating in the wakefield regime [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. In case of the N 2 targets, experiments have been performed both in the SM-LWFA [38][39][40][41][42][43][44] and the LWFA regimes [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. In case of mixed gas targets, electron acceleration has been mostly attributed to the wakefield mechanism [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][59][60]…”

Characteristics of electron beam in laser wakefield accelerator using pure nitrogen gas

“…Because of the concern of ionization-induced diffraction, ionization injection has used a mixture of low Z atoms such as helium or hydrogen and high Z atoms such as oxygen or nitrogen. On the other hand, pure nitrogen has advantages in stability and cost compared with mixed gas [9]. Also even with pure nitrogen case, generations of quasi mono-energetic electron beam were reported [10][11][12].…”

Lazer ile Hızlandırılan Döteronlarla Füzyon-Fisyon Hedef Sisteminin İncelenmesi

“…Lazer ile hızlandırma ve geleneksel hızlandırıcılar karşılaştırıldığında, iki teknoloji arasındaki ana farklılıklardan bazıları lazer teknolojilerinin hızlı gelişmesi, boyutlarının küçük olması, düşük maliyetli ve daha az radyasyon zırhlaması gerektirmesi sayılabilir. 1960'da lazerin icadından sonra, lazerlerin gücü, yıllar içinde çarpıcı bir şekilde arttı ve aslında lazer teknolojisindeki son gelişmeler, dünya çapında birçok laboratuvarda kompakt terawatt (TW) ve petawatt (PW) gücündeki lazer sistemlerinin geliştirilmesine neden oldu [5][6][7][8]. Günümüzde yüksek güçlü lazerler yardımıyla yüklü parçacıklar, yüksek enerjili γ-ışınları ve nötron üretebildikleri ayrıca birçok nükleer reaksiyonu tetikleyebildikleri ispatlanmıştır.…”