Abstract
The Centro de Laseres Pulsados in Salamanca, Spain has recently started operation phase and the first user access period on the 6 J 30 fs 200 TW system (VEGA 2) already started at the beginning of 2018. In this paper we report on two commissioning experiments recently performed on the VEGA 2 system in preparation for the user campaign. VEGA 2 system has been tested in different configurations depending on the focusing optics and targets used. One configuration (long focal length $F=130$ cm) is for underdense laser–matter interaction where VEGA 2 is focused onto a low density gas-jet generating electron beams (via laser wake field acceleration mechanism) with maximum energy up to 500 MeV and an X-ray betatron source with a 10 keV critical energy. A second configuration (short focal length $F=40$ cm) is for overdense laser–matter interaction where VEGA 2 is focused onto a $5~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ thick Al target generating a proton beam with a maximum energy of 10 MeV and temperature of 2.5 MeV. In this paper we present preliminary experimental results.
Highlights
Laser technology has advanced to the point where hitherto unobtainable intensities are routinely achievable, and rapid progress is being made to increase intensities further[1]
A result of this technological development can be seen in the new generation of ultrafast high power laser systems
For both the configurations the laser VEGA 2 has been delivered at 30 fs, with a maximum power of 150 TW corresponding to a maximum energy at the entrance of the compressor of around 7 J
Summary
Laser technology has advanced to the point where hitherto unobtainable intensities are routinely achievable, and rapid progress is being made to increase intensities further[1]. The second configuration is designed for over critical density laser–matter interaction where VEGA 2 is focused (F = 40 cm, φL = 7 μm, Zr = 25 μm) onto a 5 μm Al target generating (via target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) mechanism[13,14,15,16]) a proton beam with a maximum energy of 10 MeV and average temperature of 2.5 MeV. In this paper both the commissioning experiments are reported and explained by describing the experimental setup and showing the capabilities of the VEGA system.
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