Precise knowledge of the temporal and spatial evolution of the plasma density within plasma targets is important for realising high quality accelerated beams in plasma wakefield accelerators like FLASHForward. A plasma target characterisation setup was assembled for the purpose of measuring the electrical discharge-generated plasma density in the different types of gas-filled targets used at...
Multi-pulse laser wakefield acceleration (MP-LWFA) is a promising scheme for increasing the repetition rate of LWFAs to to the kHz range [1-2] In this approach the laser wakefield is driven by a train of laser pulses spaced by the plasma wavelength such that the wakefields driven by each pulse interfere coherently.
A major consideration for MP-LWFA is the decay time of the wakefield, since...
We report on optical probing results using few-cycle microscopy obtained during a laser wakefield acceleration experiment carried out with the JETI-200 laser system at the Helmholtz-Institute Jena. When traveling through the plasma and exciting a plasma wave, the pump pulse can get scattered at plasma structures depending on the pump pulse’s evolution inside the plasma, its chirp and the...
