Gev-Scale Accelerators Driven by Plasma-Modulated Pulses from Kilohertz Lasers

O. Jakobsson, S. M. Hooker, and R. Walczak
Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 184801 – Published 26 October 2021
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Abstract

We describe a new approach for driving GeV-scale plasma accelerators with long laser pulses. We show that the temporal phase of a long, high-energy driving laser pulse can be modulated periodically by copropagating it with a low-amplitude plasma wave driven by a short, low-energy seed pulse. Compression of the modulated driver by a dispersive optic generates a train of short pulses suitable for resonantly driving a plasma accelerator. Modulation of the driver occurs via well-controlled linear processes, as confirmed by good agreement between particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations and an analytic model. PIC simulations demonstrate that a 1.7 J, 1 ps driver, and a 140 mJ, 40 fs seed pulse can accelerate electrons to energies of 0.65 GeV in a plasma channel with an axial density of 2.5×1017cm3. This work opens a route to high repetition-rate, GeV-scale plasma accelerators driven by thin-disk lasers, which can provide joule-scale, picosecond-duration laser pulses at multikilohertz repetition rates and high wall-plug efficiencies.

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  • Received 17 June 2021
  • Revised 24 August 2021
  • Accepted 28 September 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.184801

© 2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Accelerators & BeamsPlasma PhysicsAtomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

O. Jakobsson, S. M. Hooker, and R. Walczak*

  • John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science and Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom

  • *roman.walczak@physics.ox.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 127, Iss. 18 — 29 October 2021

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