Sep 18 – 24, 2022
Hotel Hermitage, La Biodola Bay, Isola d'Elba, Italy
Europe/Rome timezone

Resonant wakefield excitation observed in long plasma channels

Sep 19, 2022, 7:15 PM
1h
Sala Elena - Hotel Hermitage

Sala Elena - Hotel Hermitage

Poster (student) Poster Session

Speaker

Aimee Ross

Description

The multi-pulse laser wakefield acceleration (MP-LWFA) scheme provides a route for GeV-scale accelerators operating at kilohertz-repetition-rates driven by picosecond-duration laser pulses, such as those available from thin-disk lasers, which are modulated to be resonant with the plasma wave. We recently published theoretical work proposing a new scheme of GeV accelerator based on MP-LWFA. In this scheme, trains of pulses are generated from a long, high-energy drive pulse via the spectral modulation caused by a low amplitude wakefield driven by a leading short, low-energy seed pulse. Our simulations show that temporal compression of the modulated drive pulse yields a pulse train that can resonantly drive a wakefield, allowing for acceleration of a test electron bunch to 0.65 GeV in a 100 mm-long plasma channel.
In this study, we present the preliminary results of recent experiments with the Astra-Gemini TA3 laser at the Central Laser Facility which are relevant to the accelerator stage of this novel scheme. We demonstrate, for the first time, guiding of 2.5 J pulse trains in a 100 mm long all-optical plasma channel. Measurements of the spectrum of the transmitted laser pulse train suggest that a wakefield was resonantly excited in the plasma channel.

Primary authors

Aimee Ross Emily Archer James Chappell (University of Oxford) Mr James Cowley (University of Oxford) Linus Feder Oscar Jakobsson Harry Jones (University Of Liverpool) Alex Picksley (University of Oxford) Lewis Reid (Cockcroft Institute, University of Liverpool) Mr Johannes Van de Wetering (University of Oxford) Mr Wei-Ting Wang (University of Oxford) Mr Nicolas Bourgeois (CLF, STFC) Laura Corner (Cockcroft Institute, University of Liverpool) Roman Walczak (University of Oxford) Simon Hooker (University of Oxford)

Presentation materials