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arXiv · 1505.05732

Energy limitation of laser-plasma electron accelerators

D. E. Cardenas·S. Chou·J. Xu·L. Hofmann·A. Buck·K. Schmid·C. M. S. Sears·D. E. Rivas·B. Shen·L. Veisz
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Abstract

We report on systematic and high-precision measurements of dephasing, an effect that fundamentally limits the performance of laser wakefield accelerators. Utilizing shock-front injection, a technique providing stable, tunable and high-quality electron bunches, acceleration and deceleration of few-MeV quasi-monoenergetic beams were measured with sub-5-fs and 8-fs laser pulses. Typical density dependent electron energy evolution with 65-300 micrometers dephasing length and 6-20 MeV peak energy was observed and is well described with a simple model.

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D. E. Cardenas, S. Chou, J. Xu, L. Hofmann, A. Buck, K. Schmid, C. M. S. Sears, D. E. Rivas, B. Shen, L. Veisz. 2015-05-29. Energy limitation of laser-plasma electron accelerators. https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.05732

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