Generation of tunable, 100-800 MeV quasi-monoenergetic electron beams from a laser-wakefield accelerator in the blowout regime

S. Banerjee, N. D. Powers, V. Ramanathan, I. Ghebregziabher, K. J. Brown, C. M. Maharjan, S. Chen, A. Beck, E. Lefebvre, S. Y. Kalmykov, B. A. Shadwick, D. P. Umstadter

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44 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper, we present results on a scalable high-energy electron source based on laser wakefield acceleration. The electron accelerator using 30-80 TW, 30 fs laser pulses, operates in the blowout regime, and produces high-quality, quasi-monoenergetic electron beams in the range 100-800 MeV. These beams have angular divergence of 1-4 mrad, and 5%-25% energy spread, with a resulting brightness 1011 electrons mm-2 MeV-1 mrad -2. The beam parameters can be tuned by varying the laser and plasma conditions. The use of a high-quality laser pulse and appropriate target conditions enables optimization of beam quality, concentrating a significant fraction of the accelerated charge into the quasi-monoenergetic component.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number056703
JournalPhysics of Plasmas
Volume19
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2012
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics

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