Abstract
Gas-filled capillary discharge waveguides are commonly used as media for plasma wakefield accelerators. We show that effective waveguides can be manufactured using a femtosecond laser micromachining technique to produce a linearly tapered plasma density, which enables the energy of the accelerator to be enhanced significantly. A laser guiding efficiency in excess of 82% at sub-relativistic intensities has been demonstrated in a 40 mm long capillary with a diameter tapering from 320 μm to 270 μm, which gives rise to an on-axis, time-averaged plasma density that varies from 1.0 × 1018 cm−3 to 1.6 × 1018 cm−3.
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
Volume | 100 |
Early online date | 4 Jan 2012 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Keywords
- radiation
- tapered discharge
- capillary waveguides
- laser plasma
- wakefield accelerator