Betatron x-ray radiation from laser-plasma accelerators driven by femtosecond and picosecond laser systems
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2018

A comparative experimental study of betatron x-ray radiation from laser wakefield acceleration in the blowout and self-modulated regimes is presented. Our experiments use picosecond duration laser pulses up to 150 J (self-modulated regime) and 60 fs duration laser pulses up to 10 J (blowout regime), for plasmas with electronic densities on the order of 1019cm-3. In the self-modulated regime, where betatron radiation has been very little studied compared to the blowout regime, electrons accelerated in the wake of the laser pulse are subject to both the longitudinal plasma and transverse laser electrical fields. As a result, their motion within the wake is relatively complex; consequently, the experimental and theoretical properties of the x-ray source based on self-modulation differ from the blowout regime of laser wakefield acceleration. In our experimental configuration, electrons accelerated up to about 250 MeV and betatron x-ray spectra with critical energies of about 10-20 keV and photon fluxes between 108and 1010photons/eV Sr are reported. Our experiments open the prospect of using betatron x-ray radiation for applications, and the source is competitive with current x-ray backlighting methods on multi-kilojoule laser systems.

Författare

F. Albert

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

N. Lemos

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

University of California

J. L. Shaw

University of California

University of Rochester

P. M. King

The University of Texas at Austin

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

B. B. Pollock

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

C. Goyon

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

W. Schumaker

Stanford University

A. M. Saunders

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

K. A. Marsh

University of California

A. Pak

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

J. E. Ralph

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Joana Luís Martins

Chalmers, Fysik, Subatomär fysik och plasmafysik

Instituto Superior Tecnico

L. D. Amorim

University of California

Instituto Superior Tecnico

Stony Brook University

R. W. Falcone

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

S. H. Glenzer

Stanford University

J. D. Moody

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

C. Joshi

University of California

Physics of Plasmas

1070-664X (ISSN) 1089-7674 (eISSN)

Vol. 25 5 056706

Ämneskategorier

Acceleratorfysik och instrumentering

Atom- och molekylfysik och optik

Annan fysik

DOI

10.1063/1.5020997

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2018-06-20