Pseudoresonant laser wakefield acceleration driven by 10.6-μm laser light

• Published in: IEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. 3 - 7
• Main Authors: KIMURA, W. D, ANDREEV, N. E, PAVLISHIN, I. V, POGORELSKY, I. V, POGOSOVA, A. A, STEINHAUER, L. C, TING, A, YAKIMENKO, V, ZIGLER, A, ZHOU, F, BABZIEN, M, BEN-ZVI, I, CLINE, D. B, DILLEY, C. E, GOTTSCHALK, S. C, HOOKER, S. M, KUSCHE, K. P, KUZNETSOV, S. V
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 01-02-2005
• Subjects: Acceleration; Carbon dioxide; Charged-particle beams; Construction; Electromagnetism; electron and ion optics; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Laser-driven acceleration; Laser-plasma acceleration of electrons and ions; Laser-plasma interactions; Lasers; Light (visible radiation); Microorganisms; Physics; Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges; Physics of plasmas and electric discharges; Staged; Trapping; Light matter interaction; Free electron lasers; Laser assisted processing; Index Terms-Capillary discharge; Plasma acceleration; laser accelerators; laser wakefield acceleration; Experimental study; Linear accelerators; Electron accelerators; Capillary discharge; Laser pulse; Laser plasma interaction; Wakes; Carbon dioxide lasers
• ISSN: 0093-3813; 1939-9375
• DOI: 10.1109/TPS.2004.841173

This work describes an experiment to demonstrate, for the first time, laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA), driven by 10.6- mu m light from a CO sub(2) laser. This experiment is also noteworthy because it will operate in a pseudoresonant LWFA regime, in which the laser-pulse-length is too long for resonant LWFA, but too short for self-modulated LWFA. Nonetheless, high acceleration gradients are still possible. This experiment builds upon an earlier experiment called staged electron laser acceleration (STELLA), where efficient trapping and monoenergetic laser acceleration of electrons were demonstrated using inverse free electron lasers. The aim is to apply the STELLA approach of laser-driven microbunch formation followed by laser-driven trapping and acceleration to LWFA. These capabilities are important for a practical electron linear accelerator based upon LWFA.