Ultrashort high energy electron bunches from tunable surface plasma waves driven with laser wavefront rotation

Laser injection of ultrashort electron pulses into Wakefield plasma waves.

A novel laser-plasma-based source of relativistic electrons is described. It involves a combination of orthogonally directed laser beams, which are focused in a plasma. One beam excites a wakefield electron plasma wave. Another locally alters the trajectory of some of the electrons in such a way that they can be accelerated and trapped by the wave. With currently available table-top terawatt la...

Resonantly laser-driven plasma waves for electron acceleration.

Terahertz radiation from laser accelerated electron bunches

Coherent terahertz and millimeter wave radiation from laser accelerated electron bunches has been measured. The bunches were produced by tightly focusing ~spot diameter '6 mm) a high peak power ~up to 10 TW!, ultra-short (>50 fs) laser pulse from a high repetition rate ~10 Hz! laser system ~0.8 mm!, onto a high density (.10 cm) pulsed gas jet of length '1.5 mm. As the electrons exit the plasma,...

Wavefront-sensor-based electron density measurements for laser-plasma accelerators.

Characterization of the electron density in laser produced plasmas is presented using direct wavefront analysis of a probe laser beam. The performance of a laser-driven plasma-wakefield accelerator depends on the plasma wavelength and hence on the electron density. Density measurements using a conventional folded-wave interferometer and using a commercial wavefront sensor are compared for diffe...

Laser-energy transfer and enhancement of plasma waves and electron beams by interfering high-intensity laser pulses.

The effects of interference due to crossed laser beams were studied experimentally in the high-intensity regime. Two ultrashort (400 fs), high-intensity (4 x 10(17) and 1.6 x 10(18) W/cm(2)) and 1 microm wavelength laser pulses were crossed in a plasma of density 4 x 10(19) cm(3). Energy was observed to be transferred from the higher-power to the lower-power pulse, increasing the amplitude of t...