Abstract
Plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) is a novel acceleration technique with promising prospects for both particle colliders and light sources. However, PWFA research has so far been limited to a few large-scale accelerator facilities world-wide. Here, we present first results on plasma wakefield generation using electron beams accelerated with a 100-TW-class Ti:Sa laser. Due to their ultrashort duration and high charge density, the laser-accelerated electron bunches are suitable to drive plasma waves at electron densities in the order of $10^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$. We capture the beam-induced plasma dynamics with femtosecond resolution using few-cycle optical probing and, in addition to the plasma wave itself, we observe a distinctive transverse ion motion in its trail. This previously unobserved phenomenon can be explained by the ponderomotive force of the plasma wave acting on the ions, resulting in a modulation of the plasma density over many picoseconds. Due to the scaling laws of plasma wakefield generation, results obtained at high plasma density using high-current laser-accelerated electron beams can be readily scaled to low-density systems. Laser-driven PWFA experiments can thus act as miniature models for their larger, conventional counterparts. Furthermore, our results pave the way towards a novel generation of laser-driven PWFA, which can potentially provide ultra-low emittance beams within a compact setup.
Highlights
Over the past century, particle accelerators and colliders have been an essential tool to discover new physics
As the physics of Plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) is completely scalable with the plasma density, depending only on the relative bunch density nb=n0 and size kpσzjr, a LWFAdriven high-density PWFA can serve as a miniature model for large plasma accelerators such as FACET at SLAC [28], FLASHForward at DESY [29], or AWAKE at CERN [30]
We present novel results on picosecondtimescale plasma ion dynamics behind the laser-generated electron-beam driver, which demonstrate the capabilities of laser systems to advance PWFA research
Summary
Particle accelerators and colliders have been an essential tool to discover new physics. We discuss a new experimental approach to study PWFA by using laser-wakefield-accelerated (LWFA) [19,23,24] electrons as a plasma-wave driver [25,26] Because of their unprecedented peak currents and few-fs duration [27], they allow the study of PWFA on much shorter spatial and temporal scales, corresponding to plasma densities in the 1018–1020 cm−3 regime and field gradients approaching 100 GV=m, with commercially available 100 TW-class Ti:sapphire lasers as the primary driver. As the physics of PWFA is completely scalable with the plasma density, depending only on the relative bunch density nb=n0 and size kpσzjr (with kp 1⁄4 2π=λp), a LWFAdriven high-density PWFA can serve as a miniature model for large plasma accelerators such as FACET at SLAC [28], FLASHForward at DESY [29], or AWAKE at CERN [30] It can provide a compact way to study physics related to beam-driven wakefield generation. We present novel results on picosecondtimescale plasma ion dynamics behind the laser-generated electron-beam driver, which demonstrate the capabilities of laser systems to advance PWFA research
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