Bright x-ray radiation from plasma bubbles in an evolving laser wakefield accelerator

M. S. Bloom, M. J.V. Streeter, S. Kneip, R. A. Bendoyro, O. Cheklov, J. M. Cole, A. Döpp, C. J. Hooker, J. Holloway, J. Jiang, N. C. Lopes, H. Nakamura, P. A. Norreys, P. P. Rajeev, D. R. Symes, J. Schreiber, J. C. Wood, M. Wing, Z. Najmudin, S. P.D. Mangles

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)
21 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We show that the properties of the electron beam and bright x rays produced by a laser wakefield accelerator can be predicted if the distance over which the laser self-focuses and compresses prior to self-injection is taken into account. A model based on oscillations of the beam inside a plasma bubble shows that performance is optimized when the plasma length is matched to the laser depletion length. With a 200 TW laser pulse, this results in an x-ray beam with a median photon energy of 20 keV, >6×108 photons above 1 keV per shot, and a peak brightness of 3×1022 photons s-1 mrad-2 mm-2 (0.1% BW)-1.

Original languageEnglish
Article number061301
JournalPhysical Review Accelerators and Beams
Volume23
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Jun 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank the staff at the Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory for their assistance. This research was supported by STFC (ST/J002062/1, ST/P002021/1), EPSRC (EP/I014462/1), and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreements No. 682399 and No. 653782).

Funding Information:
The authors thank the staff at the Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory for their assistance. This research was supported by STFC (ST/J002062/1, ST/P002021/1), EPSRC (EP/I014462/1), and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreements No. 682399 and No. 653782).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
  • Surfaces and Interfaces

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