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The Effect of Laser Focusing Geometry on the Direct Laser Acceleration of Electrons

ORAL

Abstract

Direct laser acceleration (DLA) is capable of generating super-ponderomotive energy electrons to hundreds of MeV, as well as secondary particles and radiation from high-intensity picosecond laser pulses interacting with underdense plasma. The dynamic and complex process of DLA is strongly dependent on a combination of plasma and laser parameters. Experiments performed on the OMEGA EP facility using apodized beams and 2D particle-in-cell simulations study the effect of laser focusing geometry on DLA. Simulations reveal the laser channel creation, channel fields evolution, as well as the laser fields' contributions to the corresponding electron dynamics. Our results show an optimal laser focusing geometry and a path towards optimizing DLA conditions.

This work is supported by the Department of Energy / NNSA under Award Number DE-NA0004030. The experiment was conducted at the Omega Laser Facility at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics with the beam time through the National Laser Users’ Facility (NLUF) program. The OSIRIS Consortium (UCLA and IST, Lisbon, Portugal) is acknowledged for providing access to the OSIRIS 4.0 framework. Work supported by NSF ACI-1339893.

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Publication: Optimization of laser focusing geometry and pulse duration for relativistic electron generation from Direct Laser Acceleration

Presenters

  • Hongmei Tang

    University of Michigan

Authors

  • Hongmei Tang

    University of Michigan

  • Paul T Campbell

    University of Michigan

  • Brandon K Russell

    University of Michigan

  • Yong Ma

    University of Michigan

  • I-Lin Yeh

    University of California, San Diego, UC San Diego

  • Kavin Tangtartharakul

    University of California, San Diego, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

  • Alexey V Arefiev

    University of California, San Diego, University of California San Diego, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

  • Hui Chen

    Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, LLNL

  • Felicie Albert

    Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Jessica L Shaw

    Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester

  • Philip M Nilson

    Lab for Laser Energetics, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester

  • Louise Willingale

    University of Michigan