13–19 Sept 2015
La Biodola, Isola d'Elba
Europe/Rome timezone

Few-cycle Optical Probing of Laser Wakefield Acceleration Experiments

14 Sept 2015, 19:30
30m
Parking Area (Hotel Hermitage)

Parking Area

Hotel Hermitage

poster WG1 - Electron beams from plasmas Poster Session 1 (WG1-WG2-WG3-WG4) and Wine

Speaker

Mr Matthew Schwab (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena)

Description

Several applications of a few-cycle optical probe-pulse (fc-probe) in Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA) experiments on the JETI 40 TW laser system in Jena, Germany will be described. This research is motivated by the need for diagnostics of the plasma wakefield with micron-scale spatial and femtosecond-scale temporal resolution to gain a deeper understanding into the physics underlying the injection and acceleration processes as well as the need to benchmark numerical simulations which have so far been the only source for such detailed information. Several experimental setups using the fc-probe pulses were implemented in the last two experimental campaigns in 2014 and 2015 allowing for various measurements to be performed. Electron plasma density distributions were measured interferometrically using a Mach-Zehnder type interferometer, and an achromatic quadri-wave lateral shearing interferometer. Shadowgraphic imaging techniques were used to investigate the evolution of the wakefield in self-injection and ionization-injection regimes, asymmetries in the wakefield due to laser asymmetries (i.e. asymmetric focal spot and pulse front tilt), birefringence of the plasma’s refractive index due to strong magnetic fields, and the feasibility of recording the temporal evolution of the wakefield in a single pump-probe interaction.

Primary author

Mr Matthew Schwab (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena)

Co-authors

Mr Alexander Blinne (Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institute Jena) Alexander Sävert (Institute for Optics and Quantumelectronics, FSU Jena) Mr Andreas Seidel (Helmholtz Institute Jena) Mr Darragh Corvan (Queens University Belfast) Mr Dominik Hollatz (Institut für Optik und Quantum Elektronik) Mr Hao Ding (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) Prof. Malte Kaluza (University of Jena, Helmholtz-Institute Jena) Prof. Matt Zepf (Helmholtz Institute Jena) Mr Max Giljohann (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) Dr Siminos Evangelos (Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme) Mr Stephan Kuschel (Helmholtz Institute Jena) Mr Thomas Heinemann (Institute for Experimental Physics, University of Hamburg) Mr Wilhelm Eschen (Institute für Optik und Quantumelektronik Jena)

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