Ultrahigh-brightness 50 MeV electron beam generation from laser wakefield acceleration in a weakly nonlinear regime

Xiang Zhongtao; Yu Changhai; Qin Zhiyong; Jiao Xuhui; Cheng Jiahui; Zhou Qiaoxuan; Axi Gatie; Jie Jianghua; Huang Ya; Cai Jintan; Liu Jiansheng

doi:10.1063/5.0189460

Volume 9 Issue 3

May 2024

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Article Navigation > Matter and Radiation at Extremes > 2024 > 9(3): 035201

Xiang Zhongtao, Yu Changhai, Qin Zhiyong, Jiao Xuhui, Cheng Jiahui, Zhou Qiaoxuan, Axi Gatie, Jie Jianghua, Huang Ya, Cai Jintan, Liu Jiansheng. Ultrahigh-brightness 50 MeV electron beam generation from laser wakefield acceleration in a weakly nonlinear regime[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2024, 9(3): 035201. doi: 10.1063/5.0189460

Citation:

Xiang Zhongtao, Yu Changhai, Qin Zhiyong, Jiao Xuhui, Cheng Jiahui, Zhou Qiaoxuan, Axi Gatie, Jie Jianghua, Huang Ya, Cai Jintan, Liu Jiansheng. Ultrahigh-brightness 50 MeV electron beam generation from laser wakefield acceleration in a weakly nonlinear regime[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2024, 9(3): 035201. doi: 10.1063/5.0189460

Citation:

Xiang Zhongtao, Yu Changhai, Qin Zhiyong, Jiao Xuhui, Cheng Jiahui, Zhou Qiaoxuan, Axi Gatie, Jie Jianghua, Huang Ya, Cai Jintan, Liu Jiansheng. Ultrahigh-brightness 50 MeV electron beam generation from laser wakefield acceleration in a weakly nonlinear regime[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2024, 9(3): 035201. doi: 10.1063/5.0189460

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Ultrahigh-brightness 50 MeV electron beam generation from laser wakefield acceleration in a weakly nonlinear regime

doi: 10.1063/5.0189460

Department of Physics, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China

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Corresponding author: a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: yuchanghai@shnu.edu.cn; b)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: phyzyqin@shnu.edu.cn; c)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: liujs@shnu.edu.cn
Received Date: 2023-11-29
Accepted Date: 2024-01-29

Available Online: 2024-05-01

Publish Date: 2024-05-01

Abstract

Abstract

We propose an efficient scheme to produce ultrahigh-brightness tens of MeV electron beams by designing a density-tailored plasma to induce a wakefield in the weakly nonlinear regime with a moderate laser energy of 120 mJ. In this scheme, the second bucket of the wakefield can have a much lower phase velocity at the steep plasma density down-ramp than the first bucket and can be exploited to implement longitudinal electron injection at a lower laser intensity, leading to the generation of bright electron beams with ultralow emittance together with low energy spread. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are carried out and demonstrate that high-quality electron beams with a peak energy of 50 MeV, ultralow emittance of ∼28 nm rad, energy spread of 1%, charge of 4.4 pC, and short duration less than 5 fs can be obtained within a 1-mm-long tailored plasma density, resulting in an ultrahigh six-dimensional brightness B_6D,n of ∼2 × 10¹⁷ A/m²/0.1%. By changing the density parameters, tunable bright electron beams with peak energies ranging from 5 to 70 MeV, a small emittance of ≤0.1 mm mrad, and a low energy spread at a few-percent level can be obtained. These bright MeV-class electron beams have a variety of potential applications, for example, as ultrafast electron probes for diffraction and imaging, in laboratory astrophysics, in coherent radiation source generation, and as injectors for GeV particle accelerators.

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