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 language | English |
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Article number | 061301 |
Journal | Physical Review Accelerators and Beams |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 26 Jun 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
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