Speaker
Prof.
Malte Kaluza
(University of Jena, Helmholtz-Institute Jena)
Description
When generating relativistic plasmas with high-power laser systems, small-scale particle accelerators can be realized producing particle pulses exhibiting parameters complementary to conventional accelerators. To further improve the stability of these particle pulses and ultimately to be able to tailor the energy spectrum towards their sutability for various applications, the physics underlying the different acceleration scenarios need to be understood as well as possible.
To be able to resolve these acceleration processes diagnostics well-suited for this plasma environment need to be designed and realized. In this presentation, several techniques will be introduced and recent results will be discussed. They have lead to the first time-resolved visualization of the plasma wave necessary for laser-driven electron acceleration with unprecedented temporal and spatial detail. We could observe for the first time the formation, its non-linear evolution, the actual breaking of the plasma wave and ultimately its transformation into one single remaining plasma wave oscillation, also referred to as the plasma bubble. These results weill be discussed in detail and compared to the results from multi-dimensional numerical simulations. Furthermore, diagnostic techniques relevant for laser-driven ion acceleration based on optical and particle probing will be presented.
Primary author
Prof.
Malte Kaluza
(University of Jena, Helmholtz-Institute Jena)