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Proof-of-Principle Experiment for Nanoparticle-Assisted Laser Wakefield Electron Acceleration

Constantin Aniculaesei1, Vishwa Bandhu Pathak1, Kyung Hwan Oh1, Prashant Kumar Singh1, Bo Ram Lee1, Calin Ioan Hojbota1,2, Tae Gyu Pak1,2, Enrico Brunetti3, Byung Ju Yoo1 et al.

Jae Hee Sung1,4, Seong Ku Lee1,4, Hyung Taek Kim1,4,*, and Chang Hee Nam1,2

  • 1Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea
  • 2Department of Physics and Photon Science, GIST, Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea
  • 3Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom
  • 4Advanced Photonics Research Institute, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea

  • *htkim@gist.ac.kr
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Phys. Rev. Applied 12, 044041 – Published 17 October, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.12.044041

Abstract

Laser electron accelerators have paved the way to build compact electron accelerators, but the quality of the electron beam should be improved to enable efficient use in various specialized applications. We demonstrate a proof-of-principle experiment for nanoparticle-assisted laser wakefield acceleration (NA LWFA) to improve the quality of the electron beam. Nanoparticles are generated through laser ablation of an aluminum target and introduced into a helium plasma to trigger the injection of electrons into the nonlinear plasma wake excited by 70 TW femtosecond laser pulses. We observe a significant enhancement of the electron beam energy, energy spread, and divergence compared with the case of self-injection. For instance, the best quality electron bunches present a maximum energy of up to 340 MeV, with a relative energy spread of 4.7% and a vertical divergence of 5.9 mrad. The initial results on NA LWFA are very promising and motivate further theoretical and experimental research into developing nanoparticle-assisted laser wakefield acceleration.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 12, 044041– Published 17 October, 2019
  • Received 20 June 2019
  • Revised 30 July 2019
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