Laser-driven electron acceleration and future application to compact light sourcesстатья
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 18 июля 2013 г.
Аннотация:Laser-driven plasma accelerators are gaining much attention by the advanced accelerator community
due to the potential these accelerators hold in miniaturizing future high-energy and mediumenergy
machines. In the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA), the ponderomotive force of an ultrashort
high-intensity laser pulse excites a longitudinal plasma wave or bubble. Due to huge charge
separation, electric fields created in the plasma bubble can be several orders of magnitude higher
than those available in conventional microwave and RF-based accelerator facilities, which are limited
(up to s 100 MV/m) by material breakdown. Therefore, if an electron bunch is injected into
the bubble in phase with its field, it will gain relativistic energies within an extremely short distance.
Here, in the LWFA, we show the generation of high-quality and high-energy electron beams
up to the GeV-class within a few millimeters of gas-jet plasmas irradiated by tens-of- terawatt
ultrashort laser pulses. Thus, we realize approximately four orders of magnitude acceleration gradients,
higher than available by conventional technology. As a practical application of the stable
high-energy electron beam generation, we are planning on injecting the electron beams into a fewmeter-
long conventional undulator in order to realize compact X-ray synchrotron (immediate) and
Free Electron Laser (future) light sources. Stable laser-driven electron beam and radiation devices
will surely open a new era in science, medicine, and technology and will benefit a larger number of
users in those fields.