Hard x-rays and high-energy electrons from a laser plasma accelerator

Author

Mangles, Stuart P D ; Bloom, Michael ; Streeter, Matthew J. ; Döpp, Andreas ; Kneip, Stefan ; Nakamura, Hirotaka ; Najmudin, Zulfikar ; Bendoyro, Rodolfo ; Jiang, Jiasheng ; Lopes, Nelson ; Symes, Dan R.

Author_Institution

Blackett Lab., Imperial Coll. London, London, UK

fYear

2012

fDate

8-13 July 2012

Abstract

Using a 250 TW laser pulse from the Astra Gemini Laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory we demonstrate the production of high-energy (>; 1 GeV) electron beams and bright, hard x-rays (10-100 keV) using a self-injecting, selfguiding laser wakefield accelerator. Analysis of the three dimensional momentum trajectory of the electron beam provides insight into the x-ray generation mechanism. These bright, femtosecond duration flashes of x-ray light could be useful for a wide range of applications.

Keywords

X-ray production; electron beams; particle beam dynamics; particle beam injection; plasma accelerators; wakefield accelerators; 3D momentum trajectory; Astra Gemini Laser; Rutherford Appleton Laboratory; X-ray generation mechanism; X-ray light; bright femtosecond duration flashes; bright hard X-rays; high-energy electron beam production; high-energy electrons; laser plasma accelerator; laser pulse; power 250 TW; self-injecting selfguiding laser wakefield accelerator; Electron beams; Laboratories; Laser beams; Laser theory; Plasma accelerators; X-ray lasers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Plasma Science (ICOPS), 2012 Abstracts IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Edinburgh

ISSN

0730-9244

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-2127-4

Electronic_ISBN

0730-9244

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PLASMA.2012.6383902

Filename

6383902