Abstract

We report on a study on controlled injection of electrons into the accelerating phase of a plasma wakefield accelerator by tailoring the target density distribution using two independent sources of gas. The tailored density distribution is achieved experimentally by inserting a narrow nozzle, with an orifice diameter of only 400μm , into a jet of gas supplied from a 2 mm diameter nozzle. The combination of these two nozzles is used to create two regions of different density connected by a density gradient. Using this setup we show independent control of the charge and energy distribution of the bunches of accelerated electron as well as decreased shot-to-shot fluctuations in these quantities compared to self-injection in a single gas jet. Although the energy spectra are broad after injection, simulations show that further acceleration acts to compress the energy distribution and to yield peaked energy spectra.

Details

Title
Down-ramp injection and independently controlled acceleration of electrons in a tailored laser wakefield accelerator
Author
Hansson, M; Aurand, B; Davoine, X; Ekerfelt, H; Svensson, K; Persson, A; C.-G. Wahlström; Lundh, O
Section
ARTICLES
Publication year
2015
Publication date
Jul 2015
Publisher
American Physical Society
e-ISSN
10984402
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2551264027
Copyright
© 2015. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.