X-ray sources with tunable energy spectra have a wide range of applications in different scenarios due to their different penetration depths.However,existing x-ray sources face difficulties in terms of energy regulation.In this paper,we present a scheme for tuning the energy spectrum of a betatron x-ray generated from a relativistic electron bunch oscillating in a plasma wakefield.The center energy of the x-ray source can be tuned from several keV to several hundred keV by changing the plasma density,thereby extending the control range by an order of magnitude.At different central energies,the brightness of the betatron radiation is in the range of 3.7×10^(22)to 5.5×10^(22)photons/(0.1%BW·s·mm^(2)·mrad^(2))and the photon divergence angle is about 2 mrad.This high-brightness,energy-controlled betatron source could pave the way to a wide range of applications requiring photons of specific energy,such as phase-contrast imaging in medicine,non-destructive testing and material analysis in industry,and imaging in nuclear physics.
Laser wakefield acceleration,as an advanced accelerator concept,has attracted great attentions for its ultrahigh acceleration gradient and the capability to produce high brightness electron bunches.The three-dimensional(3D)density serves as an evaluation metric for the particle bunch quality and is intrinsically related to the applications of an accelerator.Despite its significance,this parameter has not been experimentally measured in the investigation of laser wakefield acceleration.We report on an electro-optic 3D snapshot of a laser wakefield electron bunch at a position outside the plasma.The 3D shape of the electron bunch was detected by simultaneously performing optical transition radiation imaging and electro-optic sampling.Detailed 3D structures to a few micrometer levels were reconstructed using a genetic algorithm.The electron bunch possessed a transverse size of less than 30 micrometers.The current profile shows a multi-peak structure.The main peak had a duration of<10 fs and a peak current>1 kA.The maximum electron 3D number density was~9×10^(21)m^(-3).This research demonstrates a feasible way of 3D density monitoring on femtosecond kilo-ampere electron bunches,at any position of a beam transport line for relevant applications.
Kai HuangZhan JinNobuhiko NakaniiTomonao HosokaiMasaki Kando
Laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA)promises compact accelerators toward the high-energy frontier.However,the approach to the 100 GeV milestone faces the obstacle of the long focal length required for optimal acceleration with high-power lasers,which reaches hundreds of meters for 10-100 PW lasers.The long focal length originates from optimal laser intensity required to avoid nonlinear effects and hence large spot size and Rayleigh length.We propose a"telescope"geometry in which a micro-plasma parabola(MPP)is coupled with a short-focal-length off-axis parabola,minimizing the focal length to the meter range for LWFA under optimized conditions driven by lasers beyond 1 PW.Full-dimensional kinetic simulations demonstrate the generation of a 9 GeV electron bunch within only 1 m optical length—only one-tenth of that required with the conventional approach with the same performance.The proposed MPP provides a basis for the construction of compact LWFAs toward single-stage 100 GeV acceleration with 100 PW class lasers.
Xuesong GengTongjun XuLingang ZhangIgor KostyukovAlexander PukhovBaifei ShenLiangliang Ji
An intense laser pulse focused onto a plasma can excite nonlinear plasma waves.Under appropriate conditions,electrons from the background plasma are trapped in the plasma wave and accelerated to ultra-relativistic velocities.This scheme is called a laser wakefield accelerator.In this work,we present results from a laser wakefield acceleration experiment using a petawatt-class laser to excite the wakefields as well as nanoparticles to assist the injection of electrons into the accelerating phase of the wakefields.We find that a 10-cm-long,nanoparticle-assisted laser wakefield accelerator can generate 340 pC,10±1.86 GeV electron bunches with a 3.4 GeV rms convolved energy spread and a 0.9 mrad rms divergence.It can also produce bunches with lower energies in the 4–6 GeV range.
The thorough exploration of the transverse quality represented by divergence angle has been lacking yet in the energy spread measurement of the relativistic electron beam for laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA). In this work, we fill this gap by numerical simulations based on the experimental data, which indicate that in a C-shape magnet, magnetic field possesses the beam focusing effect, considering that the divergence angle will result in an increase in the full width at half maxima(FWHM) of the electron density distribution in a uniformly isotropic manner, while the length-to-width ratio decreases. This indicates that the energy spread obtained from the electron deflection distance is smaller than the actual value, regardless of the divergence angle. A promising and efficient way to accurately correct the value is presented by considering the divergence angle(for instance, for an electron beam with a length-to-width ratio of 1.12, the energy spread correct from 1.2% to 1.5%), providing a reference for developing the high-quality electron beam source.
We propose an efficient scheme to produce ultrahigh-brightness tens of MeV electron beams by designing a density-tailored plasma to induce a wakefield in the weakly nonlinear regime with a moderate laser energy of 120 mJ.In this scheme,the second bucket of the wakefield can have a much lower phase velocity at the steep plasma density down-ramp than the first bucket and can be exploited to implement longitudinal electron injection at a lower laser intensity,leading to the generation of bright electron beams with ultralow emittance together with low energy spread.Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are carried out and demonstrate that high-quality electron beams with a peak energy of 50 MeV,ultralow emittance of28 nm rad,energy spread of 1%,charge of 4.4 pC,and short duration less than 5 fs can be obtained within a 1-mm-long tailored plasma density,resulting in an ultrahigh six-dimensional brightness B6D,n of2×1017 A/m2/0.1%.By changing the density parameters,tunable bright electron beams with peak energies ranging from 5 to 70 MeV,a small emittance of B0.1 mm mrad,and a low energy spread at a few-percent level can be obtained.These bright MeV-class electron beams have a variety of potential applications,for example,as ultrafast electron probes for diffraction and imaging,in laboratory astrophysics,in coherent radiation source generation,and as injectors for GeV particle accelerators.
The electron injection and acceleration driven by a few-cycle laser with a sharp vacuum-plasma boundary have been investigated through three-dimensional(3D)particle-in-cell simulations.It is found that an isotropic boundary impact injection(BII)first occurs at the vacuum-plasma boundary,and then carrier-envelope-phase(CEP)shift causes the transverse oscillation of the plasma bubble,resulting in a periodic electron self-injection(SI)in the laser polarization direction.It shows that the electron charge of the BII only accounts for a small part of the total charge,and the CEP can effectively tune the quality of the injected electron beam.The dependences of laser intensity and electron density on the total charge and the ratio of BII charge to the total charge are studied.The results are beneficial to electron acceleration and its applications,such as betatron radiation source.