Projects per year
Abstract
High-charge electron beams produced by laser-wakefield accelerators are potentially novel, scalable sources of high-power terahertz radiation suitable for applications requiring high-intensity fields. When an intense laser pulse propagates in underdense plasma, it can generate femtosecond duration, self-injected picocoulomb electron bunches that accelerate on-axis to energies from 10s of MeV to several GeV, depending on laser intensity and plasma density. The process leading to the formation of the accelerating structure also generates non-injected, sub-picosecond duration, 1-2~MeV nanocoulomb electron beams emitted obliquely into a hollow cone around the laser propagation axis. These wide-angle beams are stable and depend weakly on laser and plasma parameters. Here we perform simulations to characterise the coherent transition radiation emitted by these beams if passed through a thin metal foil, or directly at the plasma-vacuum interface, showing that coherent terahertz radiation with 10s~$\mu$J to mJ-level energy can be produced with an optical to terahertz conversion efficiency up to 10^{-4}-10^{-3}.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 043046 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | New Journal of Physics |
Volume | 20 |
Early online date | 16 Mar 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 20 Apr 2018 |
Keywords
- terahertz generation
- laser-driven electron acceleration
- electron beams
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Dive into the research topics of 'High-energy coherent terahertz radiation emitted by wide-angle electron beams from a laser-wakefield accelerator'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 4 Finished
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Lab in a bubble
Jaroszynski, D., Boyd, M., Brunetti, E., Ersfeld, B., Hidding, B., McKenna, P., Noble, A., Sheng, Z., Vieux, G., Welsh, G. H. & Wiggins, M.
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
1/04/16 → 31/03/21
Project: Research
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Laserlab-Europe IV (H2020 INFRA IA)
Jaroszynski, D., Hidding, B., McKenna, P. & Sheng, Z.
European Commission - Horizon 2020
1/12/15 → 30/11/19
Project: Research
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Datasets
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Data for: "High-energy coherent terahertz radiation emitted by wide-angle electron beams from a laser-wakefield accelerator"
Brunetti, E. (Creator), Yang, X. (Contributor) & Jaroszynski, D. (Contributor), University of Strathclyde, 16 Mar 2018
DOI: 10.15129/2d34924e-b2f0-4c75-b36b-8abb13cbdf55
Dataset