Giga Electron Volt Scale High-Repetition-Rate Plasma Accelerator
Abstract
This report describes work undertaken between 15th August 2018 and 14th August 2022 under grant number FA9550-18-7005. Two topics relating to the development of laser-driven plasma accelerators were studied. The first of these --- the multi-pulse laser Wakefield accelerator (MP-LWFA) --- provides a means to increase the pulse repetition rate of laser wakefield accelerators, which is currently at least two orders of magnitude too low for the most interesting applications. We demonstrate experimentally two key steps necessary for development of MP-LWFAs. First we show that trains of laser pulses, with a total energy in the joule range, can be guided over long (100 mm) plasma channels. Second, we show that these guided pulse trains can resonantly excite a plasma wave when the plasma density is tuned so that the spacing of the laser pulses matches the natural oscillation period of the plasma. In addition to this experimental work we describe a new concept --- the plasma modulated plasma accelerator (P-MoPA) --- for converting a single long (picosecond duration) laser pulse into a train of short laser pulses suitable for driving a MP-LWFA. We also report on experimental and theoretical work that demonstrates that motion of the plasma ions will not cause deleterious effects in practical MP-LWFAs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 17, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1191604
Entities
People
- Simon M. Hooker
Organizations
- University of Oxford