Near-GeV Acceleration of Electrons by a Nonlinear Plasma Wave Driven by a Self-Guided Laser Pulse

S. Kneip (1) , S. R. Nagel (1) , S. F. Martins (2) , S.P.D Mangles (1) , C. Bellei (1) , O. Chekhlov (3) , R. J. Clarke (3) , N. Delerue (4) , E. J. Divall (3) , G. Doucas (4) , K. Ertel (3) , F. Fiuza (2) , R. G. Fonseca (2) , P. Foster (3) , S. J. Hawkes (3) , C. J. Hooker (3) , K. Krushelnick (1, 5) , W. B. Mori (6) , C. A. J. Palmer (1) , Kim Ta Phuoc (7) , P.P. Rajeev (3) , J. Schreiber (1) , M. J.V. Streeter (3) , D. Urner (4) , J. Vieira (2) , L. O. Silva (2) , Z. Najmudin (1)

1 Blackett Laboratory
2 GoLP/Instituto Plasmas e Fusa˜o Nuclear
3 CLF - Central Laser Facility
4 Department of Physics-John Adams Institute
5 Center for Ultrafast Optical Science
6 Department of Physics and Astronomy [UCLA, Los Angeles]
7 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée

The acceleration of electrons to ≃0.8  GeV has been observed in a self-injecting laser wakefield accelerator driven at a plasma density of 5.5×10^18  cm^-3 by a 10 J, 55 fs, 800 nm laser pulse in the blowout regime. The laser pulse is found to be self-guided for 1 cm (>10zR), by measurement of a single filament containing >30% of the initial laser energy at this distance. Three-dimensional particle in cell simulations show that the intensity within the guided filament is amplified beyond its initial focused value to a normalized vector potential of a0>6, thus driving a highly nonlinear plasma wave.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

S. Kneip, S. R. Nagel, S. F. Martins, S.P.D Mangles, C. Bellei, et al.. Near-GeV Acceleration of Electrons by a Nonlinear Plasma Wave Driven by a Self-Guided Laser Pulse. Physical Review Letters, 2009, 103 (3), pp.035002. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.035002⟩. ⟨hal-00508862⟩