Demonstration of CO2-Laser-Driven Laser-Wakefield Acceleration at Brookhaven's Accelerator Test Facility

ORAL

Abstract

The advent of multi-TW CPA CO2 lasers[1] is opening mid-IR wavelengths for laser wakefield accelerators, favoring low plasma densities ne[2], and large accelerating structures enabling precise external lepton injection and optical and electron probing of wake density and field structure. We report (experiment AE95 BNL/ATF) the demonstration of electron acceleration, in the self-modulated regime, using the ATF CO2 mid-IR laser (2ps, 5J, w0\textasciitilde 30$\mu $m). Electron self-injection and acceleration was observed in a 2mm long H2 gas jet (\textasciitilde 1e17 \textless ne\textless 1e18cm-3) with bunch charge exceeding 10pc and energies exceeding 10MeV. The results agree well with 3D PIC simulations. [1] M. N. Polyanskiy et al., OSA Continuum 3, 459-472 (2020) [2] I. Pogorelsky et al, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 56, 084017 (2014)

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Authors

  • Rafal Zgadzaj

    University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, Austin

  • James Welch

    University of Texas at Austin

  • Michael Downer

    University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, Austin

  • Irina Petrushina

    Stony Brook University, State University of New York at Stony Brook

  • Prabhjot Kaur

    Brookhaven National Laboratory, Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Pietro Iapozzuto

    Stony Brook University

  • Lígia Diana Amorim

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Jiayang Yan

    Stony Brook University

  • Navid Vafaei-Najafabadi

    Stony Brook University, State University of New York at Stony Brook

  • Prabhat Kumar

    Stony Brook University, State University of New York at Stony Brook

  • Roman V Samulyak

    Stony Brook University

  • Vladimir Litvinenko

    Stony Brook University

  • Chaojie Zhang

    University of California Los Angeles

  • Chan Joshi

    University of California, Los Angeles, University of California Los Angeles

  • Igor Pogorelsky

    Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Rotem Kupfer

    Brookhaven National Laboratory, Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Mikhail Polyanskiy

    Brookhaven National Laboratory, Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Mikhail Fedurin

    Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Marcus Babzien

    Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Karl Kusche

    Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Christina Swinson

    Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Warren Mori

    University of California, Los Angeles, University of California Los Angeles, Departments of Physics and Astronomy & Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA

  • Wei Lu

    Tsinghua University