Laser-driven Plasma Wakefield Accelerators Research Articles

A hybrid nodal-staggered pseudo-spectral electromagnetic particle-in-cell method with finite-order centering

Electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) codes are widely used to perform computer simulations of a variety of physical systems, including fusion plasmas, astrophysical plasmas, plasma wakefield particle accelerators, and secondary photon sources driven by ultra-intense lasers. In a PIC code, Maxwell's equations are solved on a grid with a numerical method of choice. This article focuses on pseudo-spectral analytical time-domain (PSATD) algorithms and presents a novel hybrid PSATD PIC scheme that combines the respective advantages of standard nodal and staggered methods. The novelty of the hybrid scheme consists in using finite-order centering of grid quantities between nodal and staggered grids, in order to combine the solution of Maxwell's equations on a staggered grid with the deposition of charges and currents and the gathering of electromagnetic forces on a nodal grid. The correctness and performance of the novel hybrid scheme are assessed by means of numerical tests that employ different classes of PSATD equations in a variety of physical scenarios, ranging from the modeling of electron-positron pair creation in vacuum to the simulation of laser-driven and particle beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. It is shown that the novel hybrid scheme offers significant numerical and computational advantages, compared to purely nodal or staggered methods, for all the test cases presented.

Controlling the characteristics of injected and accelerated electron bunch in corrugated plasma channel by temporally asymmetric laser pulses

In laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerators, the accelerating electric field is orders of magnitude stronger than in conventional radio-frequency particle accelerators, but the dephasing between the ultrarelativistic electron bunch and the wakefield traveling at the group velocity of the laser pulse puts a limit on the energy gain. Quasi-phase-matching, enabled by corrugated plasma channels, is a technique for overcoming the dephasing limitation. The attainable energy and the final properties of accelerated electron beams are of utmost importance in laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). In this work, using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, the effect of the driving pulse duration on the performance of quasi-phase-matched laser wakefield acceleration (QPM-LWFA) is investigated. It is observed that for a pulse duration around half the plasma period, the maximum energy gain of the beam electrons finds its peak value. However, the results show that for a pulse of that duration the collimation of the bunch is much worse, compared to the case where the pulse duration is twice as long. Furthermore, the dynamics of the laser pulse and the evolution of the quality of the externally-injected electron bunch are studied for a symmetric pulse with sine-squared temporal profile, a positive skew pulse (i.e., one with sharp rise and slow fall), and a negative skew pulse (i.e., one with a slow rise and sharp fall). The results indicate that for a laser pulse with an appropriate pulse length compared with the plasma wavelength, the wakefield amplitude can be greatly enhanced by using a positive skew pulse, which leads to higher energy gain. Initially, this results from the stronger ponderomotive force associated with a fast rise time. Later, due to the distinct evolution of the three pulses with different initial profiles, the wakefield excited by the positive skew pulse becomes even stronger. In our simulations, the maximum energy gain for the asymmetric laser pulse with a fast rise time is almost two times larger than for the temporally symmetric laser pulse. Nevertheless, stronger focusing and defocusing fields are generated as well if a positive skew pulse is applied, which degrade the collimation of the bunch. These results should be taken into account in the design of miniature particle accelerators based on QPM-LWFA.

Characterisation of a laser plasma betatron source for high resolution x-ray imaging

We report on the characterisation of an x-ray source, generated by a laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator. The spectrum of the optimised source was consistent with an on-axis synchrotron spectrum with a critical energy of keV and the number of photons per pulse generated above 1 keV was calculated to be . The x-ray beam was used to image a resolution grid placed 37 cm from the source, which gave a measured spatial resolution of 4 µm × 5 µm. The inferred emission region had a radius and length of 0.5 ± 0.2 µm and 3.2 ± 0.9 mm respectively. It was also observed that laser damage to the exit aperture of the gas cell led to a reduction in the accelerated electron beam charge and a corresponding reduction in x-ray flux due to the change in the plasma density profile.

Radial density profile and stability of capillary discharge plasma waveguides of lengths up to 40 cm

Abstract We measured the parameter reproducibility and radial electron density profile of capillary discharge waveguides with diameters of 650 $\mathrm{\mu} \mathrm{m}$ to 2 mm and lengths of 9 to 40 cm. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, 40 cm is the longest discharge capillary plasma waveguide to date. This length is important for $\ge$ 10 GeV electron energy gain in a single laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration stage. Evaluation of waveguide parameter variations showed that their focusing strength was stable and reproducible to $<0.2$ % and their average on-axis plasma electron density to $<1$ %. These variations explain only a small fraction of laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration electron bunch variations observed in experiments to date. Measurements of laser pulse centroid oscillations revealed that the radial channel profile rises faster than parabolic and is in excellent agreement with magnetohydrodynamic simulation results. We show that the effects of non-parabolic contributions on Gaussian pulse propagation were negligible when the pulse was approximately matched to the channel. However, they affected pulse propagation for a non-matched configuration in which the waveguide was used as a plasma telescope to change the focused laser pulse spot size.

Evolution of the self-injection process in long wavelength infrared laser driven LWFA

Long wavelength infrared laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerators are investigated here in the self-modulated laser wakefield acceleration (SM-LWFA) and blowout regimes using 3D particle-in-cell simulations. The simulation results show that in the SM-LWFA regime, self-injection arises with wave breaking, whereas in the blowout regime, self-injection is not observed under the simulation conditions. The wave breaking process in the SM-LWFA regime occurs at a field strength that is significantly below the 1D wave-breaking threshold. This process intensifies at higher laser power and plasma density and is suppressed at low plasma densities (≤1×1017cm−3 here). The produced electrons show spatial modulations with a period matching that of the laser wavelength, which is a clear signature of direct laser acceleration.

Overcoming the dephasing limit in multiple-pulse laser wakefield acceleration

The electric field in laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration is orders of magnitude higher than conventional radio-frequency cavities, but the energy gain is limited by dephasing between the ultra-relativistic electron bunch and the wakefield, which travels at the laser group velocity. We present a way to overcome this limit within a single plasma stage. The amplitude of the wakefield behind a train of laser pulses can be controlled in-flight by modulating the density profile. This creates a succession of resonant laser-plasma accelerator sections and non-resonant drift sections, within which the wakefield disappears and the electrons rephase. A two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation with four 2.5TW laser pulses produces a 50MeV electron energy gain, four times that obtained from a uniform plasma. Although laser red-shift prevents operation in the blowout regime, the technique offers increased energy gain for accelerators limited to the linear regime by the available laser power. This is particularly relevant for laser-plasma x-ray sources capable of operating at high repetition rates, which are highly sought after.

Theoretical study of wakefield acceleration of electrons in capillary Z-pinch plasma waveguide

The theoretical investigation of wakefield acceleration of electrons by CO2-laser pulse with central wavelength of 10.6 μm and input peak intensity of ∼1017 W/cm2 in transient hydrogen-plasma waveguide has been conducted. The plasma waveguide is produced by the fast Z-pinch discharge inside a 3 mm inner diameter and 50 mm long capillary. The waveguide properties of the capillary Z-pinch plasma were obtained from the space and frequency dependent wave equation that combines the attenuated charged particle inertia and the light wave effects in the plasma for the ideal Gaussian laser beam. For simulation of temporal and spatial evolution of electron density and other plasma variables during the capillary discharge, we used a standard one-fluid, two-temperature one-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model complemented with atomic data of hydrogen. Simulations showed that the guiding channel occurs far from capillary wall and exists for a few nanoseconds. In terms of laser driven plasma wakefield accelerators (LWFA), the Z-pinch waveguide is able to extend the acceleration length over the whole capillary, assuming that a single-mode transmission takes place. To quantify such ability of the channel, a correlation coefficient was introduced and computed at different input beam spot sizes. An optimal beam spot size was determined by taking maximum of time average of the coefficient over the channel lifetime. At the end of the guiding channel existence, the repetitive focusing and defocusing patterns were observed with intensity increase at the focal points. For simulation of the wakefield acceleration of electrons in the different waveguiding regimes we used the particle-in-cell (PIC) combined with the aforementioned MHD model. Influence of the waveguiding regimes on the electron acceleration was demonstrated.

Diagnostics of the down-ramp gas and plasma density profiles in a gas jet and a capillary gas cell

Laser-aided plasma diagnostics is a very important tool for laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration, where a gas jet or a gas cell is used to produce a plasma density of 1018∼1019/cm3. We developed special plasma sources based on a gas jet and a capillary gas cell with a sudden density down-ramp, which can induce easy self-injection of plasma electrons into the laser wakefield. In our research, the Mach-Zehnder laser interferometer with a Ti:sapphire laser of 40 fs pulse duration was used to diagnose the gas and laser-produced plasma densities in the gas jet and the capillary gas cell. The measurement results for the gas and plasma densities are reported in this paper.

Fundamentals and Applications of Hybrid LWFA-PWFA

Fundamental similarities and differences between laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (LWFA) and particle-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) are discussed. The complementary features enable the conception and development of novel hybrid plasma accelerators, which allow previously not accessible compact solutions for high quality electron bunch generation and arising applications. Very high energy gains can be realized by electron beam drivers even in single stages because PWFA is practically dephasing-free and not diffraction-limited. These electron driver beams for PWFA in turn can be produced in compact LWFA stages. In various hybrid approaches, these PWFA systems can be spiked with ionizing laser pulses to realize tunable and high-quality electron sources via optical density downramp injection (also known as plasma torch) or plasma photocathodes (also known as Trojan Horse) and via wakefield-induced injection (also known as WII). These hybrids can act as beam energy, brightness and quality transformers, and partially have built-in stabilizing features. They thus offer compact pathways towards beams with unprecedented emittance and brightness, which may have transformative impact for light sources and photon science applications. Furthermore, they allow the study of PWFA-specific challenges in compact setups in addition to large linac-based facilities, such as fundamental beam–plasma interaction physics, to develop novel diagnostics, and to develop contributions such as ultralow emittance test beams or other building blocks and schemes which support future plasma-based collider concepts.

Hybrid LWFA-PWFA staging as a beam energy and brightness transformer: conceptual design and simulations.

We present a conceptual design for a hybrid laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator (LWFA) to beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA). In this set-up, the output beams from an LWFA stage are used as input beams of a new PWFA stage. In the PWFA stage, a new witness beam of largely increased quality can be produced and accelerated to higher energies. The feasibility and the potential of this concept is shown through exemplary particle-in-cell simulations. In addition, preliminary simulation results for a proof-of-concept experiment in Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany) are shown. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Directions in particle beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration'.

Laser-driven high-quality positron sources as possible injectors for plasma-based accelerators

The intrinsic constraints in the amplitude of the accelerating fields sustainable by radio-frequency accelerators demand for the pursuit of alternative and more compact acceleration schemes. Among these, plasma-based accelerators are arguably the most promising, thanks to the high-accelerating fields they can sustain, greatly exceeding the GeV/m. While plasma-based acceleration of electrons is now sufficiently mature for systematic studies in this direction, positron acceleration is still at its infancy, with limited projects currently undergoing to provide a viable test facility for further experiments. In this article, we study the feasibility of using a recently demonstrated laser-driven configuration as a relatively compact and inexpensive source of high-quality ultra-relativistic positrons for laser-driven and particle-driven plasma wakefield acceleration studies. Monte-Carlo simulations show that near-term high-intensity laser facilities can produce positron beams with high-current, femtosecond-scale duration, and sufficiently low normalised emittance at energies in the GeV range to be injected in further acceleration stages.

Theoretical Investigation of Z-Pinch Ar-Plasma Waveguide in a Millimeter-Scale Cross Section Capillary

Theoretical investigation of the transient Z-pinch Ar-plasma waveguide was conducted on CO2-laser pulse with a central wavelength of $10.6~\mu \text{m}$ and an input peak intensity of $1.3\times 10^{15}$ W/cm2. The main plasma variables of the fast Z-pinch discharge were obtained from a 1-D magnetohydrodynamic model. Simulation showed that the guiding channel exists for only a few nanoseconds and occurs far from capillary wall, which makes possible pure plasma guiding. In terms of laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerators, the Z-pinch waveguide is able to extend the acceleration length over the whole capillary, assuming that a single-mode transmission takes place. In order to quantify such ability of the channel, a correlation coefficient was introduced and computed at different input beam spot sizes. As a result, an optimal beam spot size was determined by taking maximum of time average of correlation coefficient over the channel lifetime. At the end of the channel existence, a repetitive focusing and defocusing pattern was observed with significant intensity increase at the focal points. This property offers an alternative regime of waveguiding.

Two-stage laser-driven plasma acceleration with external injection for EuPRAXIA

The EuPRAXIA (European Particle Research Accelerator with excellence In Applications) project aims at producing a conceptual design for the worldwide plasma-based accelerator facility, capable of delivering multi-GeV electron beams with high quality. This accelerator facility will be used for various user applications such as compact X-ray sources for medical imaging and high-energy physics detector tests. EuPRAXIA explores different approaches to plasma acceleration techniques. Laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration with external injection of an RF-generated electron beam is one of the basic research directions of EuPRAXIA. We present studies of electron beam acceleration to GeV energies by a two-stage laser wakefield acceleration with external injection from an RF accelerator. Electron beam injection, acceleration and extraction from the plasma, using particle-in-cell simulations, are investigated.

Effect of injection-gas concentration on the electron beam quality from a laser-plasma accelerator

By using 25–45 TW ultra-short (30 fs) laser pulses, we report on the effect of the injection gas concentration on the quality of electron beams generated by a laser-driven plasma wakefield acceleration employing the ionization-injection. For a plasma formed from helium-nitrogen gas mixture and depending on the concentration of the nitrogen gas, we could distinguish a clear trend for the quality of the generated electron beams in terms of their peak energy, energy-spread, divergence angle, and beam charge. The results clearly showed that the lower the nitrogen concentration, the better the quality (higher peak energy, smaller energy spread, and smaller emittance) of the generated electron beams. The results are in reasonable agreement with two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations.

RF injector design studies for the trailing witness bunch for a plasma-based user facility

The interest in plasma-based accelerators as drivers of user facilities is growing worldwide thanks to its compactness and reduced costs. In this context the EuPRAXIA collaboration is preparing a conceptual design report for a multi-GeV plasma-based accelerator with outstanding electron beam quality to pilot, among several applications, the operation of an X-ray FEL, the most demanding in terms of beam brightness. Intense beam dynamics studies have been performed to provide a reliable working point for the RF injector to generate a high-brightness trailing witness bunch suitable in external injection schemes, both in particle beam and laser driven plasma wakefield acceleration. A case of interest is the generation of a witness beam with 1 GeV energy, less than 1 mm mrad slice emittance and 30 pC in 10 fs FWHM bunch length, which turns into 3 kA peak current at the undulator entrance. The witness beam has been successfully compressed down to 10 fs in a conventional SPARC-like photo-injector and boosted up to 500 MeV in an advanced high-gradient X-band linac reaching the plasma entrance with 3 kA peak current and the following RMS values: 0.06% energy spread, 0.5 mm mrad transverse normalised emittance and a focal spot down to 1 μm. RF injector studies are here presented with the aim to satisfy the EuPRAXIA requests for the Design Study of a plasma-based user facility.

Laser-Driven Plasma Accelerators Operating in the Self-Guided, Blowout Regime

In this paper, some recent developments in the area of laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerators are reviewed. In particular, we discuss the acceleration of electrons by laser-induced plasma wakes in the so-called blowout regime. In this regime, the laser pulse is sufficiently intense to completely blowout all the plasma electrons and create a cavity or a bubble comprising plasma ions. The plasma electrons are attracted back toward the axis of propagation and form a thin sheath around the ions. The transverse and longitudinal electric fields of this cavity have desirable characteristics for accelerating a high-quality electron beam. In this blowout regime, the laser pulse can be self-guided by the wake it creates over tens of Rayleigh lengths until it is fully pump depleted. The mechanisms for producing such nonlinear wakes in plasmas, injecting electrons into the wakes so that they can be accelerated, competing instabilities that can adversely affect the beam quality, and recent experimental progress are discussed.

Laser plasma wakefield acceleration gain enhancement by means of accelerating Bessel pulses

In this paper, we propose an approach to enhance the electron energy gain in standard laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerators, using accelerating Bessel pulses with tunable group velocity so to avoid electron dephasing. We use in the numerical simulations a one-dimensional theoretical model in the linear regime, taking advantage of the “diffraction-free” properties of the localized Bessel beam and thus neglecting transverse effects during the acceleration process. With a multistage tailoring approach, we show a gain enhancement of more than 100 with electron energies that may reach the GeV range over distances shorter than 1 m.

Electron-beam manipulation techniques in the SINBAD Linac for external injection in plasma wake-field acceleration

The SINBAD facility (Short and INnovative Bunches and Accelerators at Desy) is foreseen to host various experiments in the field of production of ultra-short electron bunches and novel high gradient acceleration techniques. Besides studying novel acceleration techniques aiming to produce high brightness short electron bunches, the ARD group at DESY is working on the design of a conventional RF accelerator that will allow the production of low charge (0.5pC – few pC) ultra-short electron bunches (having full width half maximum, FWHM, length ≤ 1fs – few fs). The setup will allow the direct experimental comparison of the performance achievable by using different compression techniques (velocity bunching, magnetic compression, hybrid compression schemes). At a later stage the SINBAD linac will be used to inject such electron bunches into a laser driven Plasma Wakefield Accelerator, which imposes strong requirements on parameters such as the arrival time jitter and the pointing stability of the beam. In this paper we review the compression techniques that are foreseen at SINBAD and we underline the differences in terms of peak current, beam quality and arrival time stability.

Plasma density characterization at SPARC_LAB through Stark broadening of Hydrogen spectral lines

Plasma-based acceleration techniques are of great interest for future, compact accelerators due to their high accelerating gradient. Both particle-driven and laser-driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration experiments are foreseen at the SPARC_LAB Test Facility (INFN National Laboratories of Frascati, Italy), with the aim to accelerate high-brightness electron beams. In order to optimize the efficiency of the acceleration in the plasma and preserve the quality of the accelerated beam, the knowledge of the plasma electron density is mandatory. The Stark broadening of the Hydrogen spectral lines is one of the candidates used to characterize plasma density. The implementation of this diagnostic for plasma-based experiments at SPARC_LAB is presented.

SINBAD—The accelerator R&D facility under construction at DESY

The SINBAD facility (Short INnovative Bunches and Accelerators at DESY) is a long-term dedicated accelerator research and development facility currently under construction at DESY. It will be located in the premises of the old DORIS accelerator complex and host multiple independent experiments cost-effectively accessing the same central infrastructure like a central high power laser. With the removal of the old DORIS accelerator being completed, the refurbishment of the technical infrastructure is currently starting up.The presently ongoing conversion of the area into the SINBAD facility and the currently foreseen layout is described. The first experiment will use a compact S-band linac for the production of ultra-short bunches at hundred MeV. Once established, one of the main usages will be to externally inject electrons into a laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator to boost the energy to GeV-level while maintaining a usable beam quality, ultimately aiming to drive an FEL. The second experiment already under planning is the setup of an attosecond radiation source with advanced technology. Further usage of the available space and infrastructure is revised and national and international collaborations are being established.