Emittance Measurements of a Laser-Wakefield-Accelerated Electron Beam

S. Fritzler (1) , E. Lefebvre (2) , Victor Malka (1) , Frédéric Burgy (1) , A.E. Dangor (3) , K. Krushelnick (3) , S.P.D Mangles (3) , Z. Najmudin (3) , Jean-Philippe Rousseau (1) , B. Walton (3)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 DPTA - Département de Physique Théorique et Appliquée
3 Blackett Laboratory

The transverse emittance of a relativistic electron beam generated by the interaction of a high-intensity laser with an underdense plasma has been measured with the “pepper-pot” method. For parameters pertaining to the forced laser wakefield regime, we have measured an emittance as low as (2.7±0.9) π   mm mrad for (55±2)   MeV electrons. These measurements are consistent with 3D particle-in-cell simulations of the experiment, which additionally show the existence of a relatively large halo around the beam core.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

S. Fritzler, E. Lefebvre, Victor Malka, Frédéric Burgy, A.E. Dangor, et al.. Emittance Measurements of a Laser-Wakefield-Accelerated Electron Beam. Physical Review Letters, 2004, 92 (16), pp.165006. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.165006⟩. ⟨hal-00508778⟩