第一讲 台面型电子加速器——激光尾波场加速器

近年来,随着超短超强激光脉冲技术的发展,利用超短超强激光在等离子体中激发出的高强度尾波场来实现电子加速的方案也取得了巨大进展．相对于传统的射频腔加速器,这种新型的加速器由于以等离子体为介质,可以突破传统加速器中加速梯度小于100MV/m的限制,其加速梯度可以达到100GV/m．电子在这样的加速场下,在厘米量级的距离内就可以获得GeV的能量．随着台面型超短超强激光器的发展,新一代实用化的台面型电子加速器有望在不远的将来得以实现．文章将从理论和实验上对激光尾波场加速中的尾波激发、电子注入、距离延长三个方面加以介绍,同时给出国内在这些方面的一些研究进展．     

激光脉冲的横向波形对弓形波电子俘获的影响

用粒子模拟研究了在激光尾波场电子弓形波注入过程中激光脉冲的横向波形对尾波场俘获电子数目的影响, 发现与高斯激光相比, 超高斯形激光更有利于拉动空泡闭合前侧边的电子团向空泡尾部汇聚形成高能量局域化的弓形波, 从而导致更多的电子注入到空泡的加速相, 使得被俘获的电子数目提高近5倍, 且电子束品质得到改善.该研究对于进一步理解尾波场加速中电子注入等有参考价值. 关键词： 尾波场 电子俘获 横向波形 粒子模拟     

激光等离子体波电子加速器

本文分别用理论分析和粒子模拟方法讨论了等离子体尾波加速器和拍波加速器的物理机制。结果表明,只要激光等离子体波足够强,加上适当强度的横向磁场,就可以把MeV数量级的电子在公尺距离内加速到GeV数量级的能量。另外,还用粒子模拟方法,研究了激光对热等离子体受激向后喇曼散射产生低相速度的等离子体静电波对低能电子加速的问题,探讨了多级或多波加速的可能性。结果表明,利用激光等离子体波加速器,在一般的实验室条件下,就可获得GeV数量级的高能电子。 关键词：     

粒子模拟程序的发展及其在激光等离子体相互作用研究中的应用

介绍针对超短超强激光脉冲与等离子体相互作用研究的多维粒子模拟程序KLAP.在其一维程序KLAP1D中,考虑场电离、碰撞离化及两体碰撞效应后,程序可以用于研究短脉冲激光与中性物质的相互作用.在其三维程序KLAP3D中,为了研究加速能量达GeV的长距离激光尾波场加速问题,程序采用移动窗口技术,使得模拟尺度可以达到厘米量级.同时介绍了利用KLAP程序得到的有关THz辐射、激光与中性气体相互作用中的脉冲及离化波前演化、激光固体靶作用中表面电子加速及激光尾波场加速的研究实例.     

激光驱动的毛细管等离子体尾波特性

基于激光等离子体尾波解析模型,分析了毛细管中激光与等离子体相互作用,数值计算了尾波中基本物理量。计算结果表明：毛细管等离子体尾波幅度与毛细管半径有关,在较小的毛细管中尾波幅度更大。在相同的激光与等离子体参数情况下,与无界等离子体尾波相比较,毛细管等离子体尾波中电子空泡纵向尺度、电场强度峰值、角向自生磁场强度峰值提高了60%,这些特征都表明毛细管等离子体尾波更有利于电子加速。     

激光驱动的毛细管等离子体尾波特性

基于激光等离子体尾波解析模型,分析了毛细管中激光与等离子体相互作用,数值计算了尾波中基本物理量。计算结果表明:毛细管等离子体尾波幅度与毛细管半径有关,在较小的毛细管中尾波幅度更大。在相同的激光与等离子体参数情况下,与无界等离子体尾波相比较,毛细管等离子体尾波中电子空泡纵向尺度、电场强度峰值、角向自生磁场强度峰值提高了60%,这些特征都表明毛细管等离子体尾波更有利于电子加速。     

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.     

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。     

第二讲 激光尾波场加速中的准单能电子束的产生

自从激光尾波场加速电子方案提出以来,经过二十多年的理论和实验研究,人们在激光尾波场加速方面已经取得了重大进步,相继在电子束能量、电子单色性等束流性能上取得重大突破.特别是在2004年对电子束的单色性研究取得重大突破,国际上几个著名实验室相继报道了准单能电子束产生的实验观测,掀起了激光尾波场研究的新高潮.对于准单能电子束的产生机制,虽然尚未达成统一认识,但普遍认为空泡加速可能是其中非常重要的机制之一.文章介绍了激光尾波场的基本概念,着重介绍了单能电子束产生的空泡加速模式里的两个关键物理过程：波破和电子的自捕获,同时介绍国际上相关的一些重要实验结果和理论进展.     

激光驱动尾波场加速电子诱导光核嬗变

提出了一种基于激光尾波场加速电子诱导光核嬗变的优化方案并开展了135Cs光核嬗变的数值模拟研究。蒙特卡罗模拟研究发现随着电子能量的增加，嬗变产额逐渐趋于饱和，单位能量电子的嬗变效率在40 MeV附近时存在峰值，半高处能量为20、120 MeV。为了提升半高处能量内的电子电量从而优化嬗变产额，使用粒子模拟程序研究了超短超强激光在气体等离子体中的传输过程。研究结果发现，随着等离子体密度的降低，尾波场加速的电子能量逐渐升高，但是电荷量逐渐减少，并且圆偏振激光加速的电子能量和电荷量均优于线偏振激光。通过调整等离子体密度和激光偏振，发现在圆偏振激光和特定等离子体密度条件下，存在嬗变产额的最优值。利用电导率等效方法对345 GHz折叠波导行波管中的电磁信号的传输损耗进行了仿真研究，考察了流通管孔径、加工粗糙度等对冷腔传输损耗的影响，流通管孔径较大或加工粗糙度较大都会导致电磁信号传输衰减严重。还模拟分析了热腔中电磁信号衰减对慢波结构净增益、带宽、最佳周期数等器件特征参数的影响，结果显示，电磁信号衰减会使得增益下降和带宽降低。     

On the production of flat electron bunches for laser wakefield acceleration

We suggest a novel method for the injection of electrons into the acceleration phase of particle accelerators, producing low-emittance beams appropriate even for the demanding high-energy linear collider specifications. We discuss the injection mechanism into the acceleration phase of the wakefield in a plasma behind a high-intensity laser pulse, which takes advantage of the laser polarization and focusing. The scheme uses the structurally stable regime of transverse wakewave breaking, when the electron trajectory self-intersection leads to the formation of a flat electron bunch. As shown in three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of the interaction of a laser pulse elongated in the transverse direction with an underdense plasma, the electrons injected via the transverse wakewave breaking and accelerated by the wakewave perform betatron oscillations with different amplitudes and frequencies along the two transverse coordinates. The polarization and focusing geometry lead to a way to produce relativistic electron bunches with an asymmetric emittance (flat beam). An approach for generating flat laser-accelerated ion beams is briefly discussed. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Acceleration and radiation of externally injected electrons in laser plasma wakefield driven by a Laguerre-Gaussian pulse

By using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, externally injected electron beam acceleration and radiation in donut-like wake fields driven by a Laguerre-Gaussian pulse are investigated. Studies show that in the acceleration process the total charge and azimuthal momenta of electrons can be stably maintained at a distance of a few hundreds of micrometers. Electrons experience low-frequency spiral rotation and high-frequency betatron oscillation, which leads to a synchrotron-like radiation. The radiation spectrum is mainly determined by the betatron motion of electrons. The far field distribution of radiation intensity shows axial symmetry due to the uniform transverse injection and spiral rotation of electrons. Our studies suggest a new way to simultaneously generate hollow electron beam and radiation source from a compact laser plasma accelerator.     

Mechanisms of electron injection into laser wakefields by a weak counter-propagating pulse

Numerical studies are conducted on the electron injection into the first acceleration bucket of a laser wakefield by a weak counter-propagating laser pulse. It is shown that there are two injection mechanisms involved during the colliding laser interaction, the collective injection and stochastic injection. They are caused by the time-averaged ponderomotive force push and stochastic acceleration in the interfering fields, respectively. The threshold amplitude of the injection laser pulse is estimated for the occurrence of electron injection, which is close to that for stochastic acceleration and depends weakly upon the plasma density. The trapping of a large number of injection electrons can result in significant decay of the laser wakefield behind the first wave bucket.     

Enhanced betatron radiation by a modulating laser pulse in laser wakefield acceleration

We propose a new idea to enhance and control the betatron radiation by using a modulating laser pulse in laser wakefield acceleration. In this scheme, a high-power laser pulse is used for self-trapping and acceleration of the plasma electrons and the accelerated electron beam is modulated by a separately-propagating laser pulse for large amplitude betatron oscillations and microbunching. In this way, the relatively low power modulating laser pulse can enhance the X-ray photon flux and energy significantly. We performed two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to demonstrate the idea and the results show that a sub-TW laser pulse is enough for electron beam modulation and it can generate easily-controllable fs X-ray pulses with a wide range of photon energies from soft X-rays to hard X-rays.     

Electron Acceleration and Bunch Generation by Intense Femtosecond Laser Pulse in Preplasma of a Target

We present analytical studies of electron acceleration in the low-density preplasma of a thin solid target by an intense femtosecond laser pulse. Electrons in the preplasma are trapped and accelerated by the ponderomotive force as well as the wake field. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that when the laser pulse is stopped by the target, electrons trapped in the laser pules can be extracted and move forward inertially. The energeticelectron bunch in the bubble is unaffected by the reflected pulse and passes through the target with small energy spread and emittance. There is an optimal preplasma density for the generation of the monoenergetic electron bunch if a laser pulse is given. The maximum electron energy is inverse proportion to the preplasma density.     

激光尾波场驱动准连续小角度电子束研究进展

报道了在北京大学新建成的5 Hz 200 TW飞秒激光加速器实验装置上利用68 TW(1.7 J,25 fs)的激光与混合气体(99%He掺杂1%N_2)进行激光电子加速的初步实验结果与理论分析.在实验中观测到了最大截止能量为290 MeV的连续电子能谱,并且最大输出能量在一定的聚焦范围内基本不变.二维particle-in-cell模拟表明:电离注入导致电子不断注入,使得纵向相空间在激光传播几个毫米后基本被电子填满;之后相空间中电子分布基本保持稳定,随着激光传播距离的增加,输出电子最大能量几乎不变,这与实验观察到的最大输出能量随激光聚焦位置在一定范围内不变的现象一致.实验与模拟结果揭示了在当前实验条件下连续电离注入对电子束品质的影响,为今后进一步优化电离注入电子品质提供了依据.     

Trapping and Acceleration of Electron Bunches Generated by a Laser Pulse Moving through the Sharp Plasma Boundary

The formation and acceleration of electron bunches resulting from the self-injection of electrons into the wake wave from the laser pulse moving through a sharp plasma boundary are investigated in one-dimensional geometry. It is shown that electron trapping in the accelerating wakefield is governed by the electron energy and has a threshold character. The acceleration of the trapped bunch is numerically simulated.     

Role of stochastic heating in wakefield acceleration monitored by optical injection

It is shown that stochastic heating can play an important role in Laser Wake Field Acceleration. When considering low density plasma interacting with a high intensity wave perturbed by a low intensity counterpropagating wave, stochastic heating can provide electrons with the right momentum for trapping in the wake field. The influence of stochastic acceleration on the trapping of electrons is compared to the one of cold injection by considering several polarizations of the colliding pulses. For some value of the plasma density and pulse duration, a transition from an injection due to stochastic acceleration to a cold injection dominated regime – regarding the trapped charge – has been observed from PIC code simulations. When the plasma density exceeds some value, stochastic heating becomes important and is necessary in some circumstances to get electrons trapped into the wakefield.