Laser-driven electron beam and radiation sources for basic,medical and industrial sciences

To date active research on laser-driven plasma-based accelerators have achieved great progress on production of high-energy, high-quality electron and photon beams in a compact scale. Such laser plasma accelerators have been envisaged bringing a wide range of applications in basic, medical and industrial sciences. Here inheriting the groundbreaker’s review article on “Laser Acceleration and its future” [Toshiki Tajima, (2010)],¹⁾ we would like to review recent progress of producing such electron beams due to relativistic laser-plasma interactions followed by laser wakefield acceleration and lead to the scaling formulas that are useful to design laser plasma accelerators with controllability of beam energy and charge. Lastly specific examples of such laser-driven electron/photon beam sources are illustrated.     

Overview of plasma-based accelerator concepts

An overview is given of the physics issues relevant to the plasma wakefield accelerator, the plasma beat-wave accelerator, the laser wakefield accelerator, including the self-modulated regime, and wakefield accelerators driven by multiple electron or laser pulses. Basic properties of linear and nonlinear plasma waves are discussed, as well as the trapping and acceleration of electrons in the plasma wave. Formulas are presented for the accelerating field and the energy gain in the various accelerator configurations. The propagation of the drive electron or laser beams is discussed, including limitations imposed by key instabilities and methods for optically guiding laser pulses. Recent experimental results are summarized     

Plasma Photocathodes

Plasma wakefield accelerators offer accelerating and focusing electric fields three to four orders of magnitude larger than state-of-the-art radiofrequency cavity-based accelerators. Plasma photocathodes can release ultracold electron populations within such plasma waves and thus open a path toward tunable production of well-defined, compact electron beams with normalized emittance and brightness many orders of magnitude better than state-of-the-art. Such beams will have far-reaching impact for applications such as light sources, but also open up new vistas on high energy and high field physics. This paper reviews the innovation of plasma photocathodes, and reports on the experimental progress, challenges, and future prospects of the approach. Details of the proof-of-concept demonstration of a plasma photocathode in 90° geometry at SLAC FACET within the E-210: Trojan Horse program are described. Using this experience, alongside theoretical and simulation-supported advances, an outlook is given on future realizations of plasma photocathodes such as the upcoming E-310: Trojan Horse-II program at FACET-II with prospects toward excellent witness beam parameter quality, tunability, and stability. Future installations of plasma photocathodes also at compact, hybrid plasma wakefield accelerators, will then boost capacities and open up novel capabilities for experiments at the forefront of interaction of high brightness electron and photon beams.     

Laser acceleration and its future

Laser acceleration is based on the concept to marshal collective fields that may be induced by laser. In order to exceed the material breakdown field by a large factor, we employ the broken-down matter of plasma. While the generated wakefields resemble with the fields in conventional accelerators in their structure (at least qualitatively), it is their extreme accelerating fields that distinguish the laser wakefield from others, amounting to tiny emittance and compact accelerator. The current research largely falls on how to master the control of acceleration process in spatial and temporal scales several orders of magnitude smaller than the conventional method. The efforts over the last several years have come to a fruition of generating good beam properties with GeV energies on a table top, leading to many applications, such as ultrafast radiolysis, intraoperative radiation therapy, injection to X-ray free electron laser, and a candidate for future high energy accelerators.     

高品质激光尾波场电子加速器

激光尾波场电子加速的加速梯度相比于传统直线加速器高了3—4个量级,对于小型化粒子加速器与辐射源的研制具有重要的意义,成为当今国内外的研究热点.台式化辐射源应用需求的提高,特别是自由电子激光装置的快速发展,对电子束流品质提出了更高的要求,激光尾波场电子加速的束流品质和稳定性是目前实现新型辐射源的首要障碍.本文归纳整理了中国科学院上海光学精密机械研究所电子加速研究团队十年来在研制台式化激光尾波场电子加速器过程中采取的方案和取得的进展.例如率先提出了注入级和加速级分离的级联加速方案,通过实验获得了GeV量级的电子束能量;基于级联加速方式利用能量啁啾控制,实验获得世界最高品质的电子束流;通过优化激光系统稳定性和特殊的气体喷流结构,获得稳定的高品质电子束流输出等.这一系列实验结果有利于进一步推进激光尾波场电子加速器的应用.     

Developments in laser wakefield accelerators:From single-stage to two-stage

Laser wakefield accelerators(LWFAs)are compact accelerators which can produce femtosecond high-energy electron beams on a much smaller scale than the conventional radiofrequency accelerators.It is attributed to their high acceleration gradient which is about 3 orders of magnitude larger than the traditional ones.The past decade has witnessed the major breakthroughs and progress in developing the laser wakfield accelerators.To achieve the LWFAs suitable for applications,more and more attention has been paid to optimize the LWFAs for high-quality electron beams.A single-staged LWFA does not favor generating controllable electron beams beyond 1 Ge V since electron injection and acceleration are coupled and cannot be independently controlled.Staged LWFAs provide a promising route to overcome this disadvantage by decoupling injection from acceleration and thus the electron-beam quality as well as the stability can be greatly improved.This paper provides an overview of the physical conceptions of the LWFA,as well as the major breakthroughs and progress in developing LWFAs from single-stage to two-stage LWFAs.     

激光加速高能质子实验研究进展及新加速方案

利用超强激光与等离子体相互作用来加速高能离子是激光等离子体物理及加速器物理领域的研究热点.经过了近20年的发展,激光离子加速已取得丰硕成果,催生了一批新的应用.本文概述了国内外激光离子加速所取得的标志性实验研究进展,围绕高能质子的产生这一关键问题进行了深入的探讨,介绍了近几年来发展的有潜力的新加速方案.     

第四讲 超强激光脉冲与等离子体相互作用中高能离子的产生

近几年来，由于高功率激光技术的不断发展，利用超强激光脉冲与等离子体相互作用产生高能离子束的研究得到了极大推动．实验和理论模拟均发现，在超强激光脉冲与等离子体相互作用过程中，可以产生高亮度、小尺寸、方向性好的高能质子束和高能重离子束．这种基于超强激光的高能离子源在先进离子束成像技术、惯性约束聚变混合“快点火”、新型台面离子加速器以及医疗等方面都有很诱人的应用前景．文章主要介绍了超强激光与固体靶相互作用中高能离子束（尤其是质子束）的加速机制、高能离子束特性、常用测量方法及其潜在应用，并对最新的研究进展进行了简单介绍．     

实时单发测量的汤姆逊离子谱仪

介绍一种使用闪烁体耦合电子倍增电荷耦合器件(EMCCD)的方式对离子进行记录的汤姆逊能谱仪,可实现对离子能谱的实时单发测量。同时,该谱仪利用倾斜电极板对离子进行偏转,可减少由于离子打在电极板上产生的电磁噪声,能够提高实验结果的信噪比。该谱仪在北京大学4.5 MV静电加速器和2×6MV串列加速器上进行了标定实验,测量了闪烁体将离子转化成光子后的探测效率,实验结果也验证了该谱仪的可行性和稳定性。该汤姆逊谱仪将用于北京大学激光加速器CLAPA对离子束流的测量研究。     

Self-Injection and Acceleration of Monoenergetic Electron Beams from Laser Wakefield Accelerators in a Highly Relativistic Regime

Self-injection and acceleration of monoenergetic electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators are first investigated in the highly relativistic regime, using 100 TW class, 27 fs laser pulses. Quasi-monoenergetic multi- bunched beams with energies as high as multi-hundredMeV are observed with simultaneous measurements of side-scattering emissions that indicate the formation of self-channelfing and self-injection of electrons into a plasma wake, referred to as a ＇bubble＇. The three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations confirmed multiple self-injection of electron bunches into the bubble and their beam acceleration with gradient of 1.5 GeV/cm.     

激光等离子体尾波加速器的发展和展望

超强激光在气体等离子体中传输时可以激发出大振幅的电子等离子体尾波。激光等离子体尾波加速器是利用该尾波对带电粒子（特别是电子和正电子）进行加速的一种新型装置。由于其加速梯度相较于现有的常规加速器可以提升1000倍,为建造超紧凑型的加速器和辐射源奠定了基础,也为将来建造基于等离子体的超高能正负电子对撞机和自由电子激光装置提供了可能。对该新型加速器的原理、特点、发展历程,尤其是近十年来的主要进展和未来发展趋势及面临的主要挑战进行简要梳理和介绍。     

基于激光等离子体加速的自由电子激光研究新进展

激光等离子体加速器能够在cm尺度内产生GeV量级的高品质电子束,为研制台式化自由电子激光提供驱动源。但是受限于激光等离子体加速中的难点和现有技术发展,电子束的品质难以达到自由电子激光的需求,尤其在稳定性、发散角和能散等方面,阻碍了台式化自由电子激光的研制。介绍了基于激光等离子体加速器的自由电子激光的最新进展,整理了目前高增益自由电子激光实验过程中存在的主要挑战和对应的解决方案与实验进展,并展望未来的发展方向。最近的研究结果证明,通过控制和优化激光等离子体加速器的注入和加速过程产生的高品质电子束可以在指数增益区域实现自发辐射放大,产生高增益的辐射,这也推动基于激光等离子体加速器的自由电子激光研究进入了一个新的阶段。     

激光-等离子体加速器研究综述

综述了有关激光尾场加速器、等离子体拍频波加速器、多束激光脉冲驱动的尾场加速器以及自调制激光尾场加速器的概念及其基本特性,概述了近期的实验结果。介绍了等离子体波的产生机理及等离子体波中电子的俘获和加速,并讨论了存在于激光等离子体加速器中的一些限制和今后发展前景。     

Advanced targets,diagnostics and applications of laser-generated plasmas

High-intensity sub-nanosecond-pulsed lasers irradiating thin targets in vacuum permit generation of electrons and ion acceleration and high photon yield emission in non-equilibrium plasmas. At intensities higher than 10¹⁵?W/cm² thin foils can be irradiated in the target-normal sheath acceleration regime driving ion acceleration in the forward direction above 1?MeV per charge state. The distributions of emitted ions in terms of energy, charge state and angular emission are controlled by laser parameters, irradiation conditions, target geometry and composition. Advanced targets can be employed to increase the laser absorption in thin foils and to enhance the energy and the yield of the ion acceleration process. Semiconductor detectors, Thomson parabola spectrometer and streak camera can be employed as online plasma diagnostics to monitor the plasma parameters, shot by shot. Some applications in the field of the multiple ion implantation, hadrontherapy and nuclear physics are reported.     

激光等离子体加速器研究综述

 综述了有关激光尾场加速器、等离子体拍频波加速器、多束激光脉冲驱动的尾场加速器以及自调制激光尾场加速器的概念及其基本特性,概述了近期的实验结果。介绍了等离子体波的产生机理及等离子体波中电子的俘获和加速,并讨论了存在于激光等离子体加速器中的一些限制和今后发展前景。     

激光离子加速研究与应用展望

激光离子加速是近年来激光等离子体领域兴起的研究热点之一。激光产生的高能离子束具有高亮度、小尺寸、脉宽窄和方向性好等特点,具有很多潜在的应用。概述了几种常见的激光离子加速物理机制,对一系列激光离子加速实验进展进行了归纳总结,最后介绍了几种激光驱动离子束的潜在应用。     

Electron Acceleration by Beating of Two Intense Cross-Focused Hollow Gaussian Laser Beams in Plasma

This paper presents propagation of two cross-focused intense hollow Gaussian laser beams(HGBs) in collisionless plasma and its effect on the generation of electron plasma wave(EPW) and electron acceleration process,when relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities are simultaneously operative. Nonlinear differential equations have been set up for beamwidth of laser beams, power of generated EPW, and energy gain by electrons using WKB and paraxial approximations. Numerical simulations have been carried out to investigate the effect of typical laser-plasma parameters on the focusing of laser beams in plasmas and further its effect on power of excited EPW and acceleration of electrons. It is observed that focusing of two laser beams in plasma increases for higher order of hollow Gaussian beams,which significantly enhanced the power of generated EPW and energy gain. The amplitude of EPW and energy gain by electrons is found to enhance with an increase in the intensity of laser beams and plasma density. This study will be useful to plasma beat wave accelerator and in other applications requiring multiple laser beams.     

Particle simulation on electron acceleration process by the laser ponderomotive force in inhomogeneous underdense plasma layers

The mechanism of electron ponderomotive acceleration due to increasing group velocity of laser pulse in inhomogeneous underdense plasma layers is studied by two-dimensional relativistic parallel particle-in-cell code. The electrons within the laser pulse move with it and can be strongly accelerated ponderomotively when the duration of laser pulse is much shorter than the duration of optimum condition for acceleration in the wake. The extra energy gain can be attributed to the change of laser group velocity. More high energy electrons are generated in the plasma layer with descending density profile than that with ascending density profile. The process and character of electron acceleration in three kinds of underdense plasma layers are presented and compared.     

Demonstration of high-trapping efficiency and narrow energy spread in a laser-driven accelerator

Laser-driven electron accelerators (laser linacs) offer the potential for enabling much more economical and compact devices. However, the development of practical and efficient laser linacs requires accelerating a large ensemble of electrons together ("trapping") while keeping their energy spread small. This has never been realized before for any laser acceleration system. We present here the first demonstration of high-trapping efficiency and narrow energy spread via laser acceleration. Trapping efficiencies of up to 80% and energy spreads down to 0.36% (1 sigma) were demonstrated.     

High-intensity lasers as radiation sources

In the last decade or so, an evolution in experimental relativistic laser-plasma physics has led to highly sophisticated lasers which are now capable of generating ultra-short pulses and can be focused to intensities in excess of 10²¹ W cm^-2. The laser interaction with solid or gas targets can generate collimated beams of highly energetic electrons, protons and ions. These high-intensity laser systems, therefore, turn out to be versatile and powerful sources of radiation and high-energy particles, without recourse to large-scale facilities such as nuclear reactors or particle accelerators. The potential to induce various kinds of nuclear reactions with laser-induced radiation fields has been demonstrated at several laboratories in recent years. The present paper lays out a comprehensive overview of nuclear reactions induced by high-intensity laser matter interactions. Mechanisms for electron, proton and ion acceleration, in addition to secondary bremsstrahlung, positron and neutron production, are addressed, with a focus on the types of nuclear reactions that are possible and potential applications. Discussion of the extrapolation of these processes and applications to the next generation of table-top lasers under construction is also presented.