Development of a high charge 10 GeV laser electron accelerator
E. Rockafellow, B. Miao, J. E. Shrock, A. Sloss, M. Le, S. W. Hancock, S. Zahedpour, R. Hollinger, Shoujun Wang, John G. King, P. Zhang, Jiří Šišma, G. Grittani, R. Versaci, D. Gordon, G. J. Williams, Brendan A. Reagan, J. J. Rocca, H. M. Milchberg
Abstract
Low-density meter-scale plasma waveguides produced in meter-scale supersonic gas jets have paved the way for recent demonstrations of all-optical multi-gigaelectronvolt laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). This paper reviews recent advances by the University of Maryland, which have enabled these results, focusing on the development of elongated supersonic gas jets up to ∼1 m in length, experimental and simulation studies of plasma waveguide formation, and a new three-stage model for relativistic pulse propagation dynamics in these waveguides. We also present results from recent LWFA experiments conducted at the Laboratory for Advanced Lasers and Extreme Photonics at Colorado State University demonstrating high charge, low divergence electron bunches to ∼10 GeV, with laser-to-electron beam efficiency of at least ∼30%.