Direct laser acceleration in underdense plasmas with multi-PW lasers: a path to high-charge, GeV-class electron bunches

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Babjak, R., Willingale, L., Arefiev, A., Vranic, M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Babjak, R.
Willingale, L.
Arefiev, A.
Vranic, M.
author_facet Babjak, R.
Willingale, L.
Arefiev, A.
Vranic, M.
contents The direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in underdense plasmas can provide 100s of nC of electrons accelerated to near-GeV energies using currently available lasers. Here we demonstrate the key role of electron transverse displacement in the acceleration and use it to analytically predict the expected maximum electron energies. The energy scaling is shown to be in agreement with full-scale quasi-3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of a laser pulse propagating through a preformed guiding channel and can be directly used for optimizing DLA in near-future laser facilities. The strategy towards optimizing DLA through matched laser focusing is presented for a wide range of plasma densities paired with current and near-future laser technology. Electron energies in excess of 10 GeV are accessible for lasers at $I\sim 10^{21}~\mathrm{W/cm^2}$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2304_10469
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Direct laser acceleration in underdense plasmas with multi-PW lasers: a path to high-charge, GeV-class electron bunches
Babjak, R.
Willingale, L.
Arefiev, A.
Vranic, M.
Plasma Physics
The direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in underdense plasmas can provide 100s of nC of electrons accelerated to near-GeV energies using currently available lasers. Here we demonstrate the key role of electron transverse displacement in the acceleration and use it to analytically predict the expected maximum electron energies. The energy scaling is shown to be in agreement with full-scale quasi-3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of a laser pulse propagating through a preformed guiding channel and can be directly used for optimizing DLA in near-future laser facilities. The strategy towards optimizing DLA through matched laser focusing is presented for a wide range of plasma densities paired with current and near-future laser technology. Electron energies in excess of 10 GeV are accessible for lasers at $I\sim 10^{21}~\mathrm{W/cm^2}$.
title Direct laser acceleration in underdense plasmas with multi-PW lasers: a path to high-charge, GeV-class electron bunches
topic Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.10469