Sub-femtosecond electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration via injection suppression with a magnetic field

Q Zhao; S M Weng; M Chen; M. Zeng; B Hidding; D A Jaroszynski; R Assmann; Z M Sheng

doi:10.1088/1361-6587/ab249c

Sub-femtosecond electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration via injection suppression with a magnetic field

Q Zhao, S M Weng, M Chen, M. Zeng, B Hidding, D A Jaroszynski, R Assmann, Z M Sheng

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Abstract

It is shown that electron injection into a laser-driven plasma bubble can be manipulated by applying an external magnetic field in the presence of a plasma density gradient. The down-ramp of the density-tailored plasma locally reduces the plasma wave phase velocity, which triggers injection. The longitudinal magnetic field dynamically induces an expanding hole in the electron density distribution at the rear of the wake bubble, which reduces the peak electron velocity in its vicinity. Electron injection is suppressed when the electron velocity drops below the phase velocity, which depends on the size of the density hole. This enables the start and end of electron injection to be independently controlled, which allows generation of sub-femtosecond electron bunches with peak currents of a few kilo-Ampere, for an applied magnetic field of ∼ 10 Tesla.

Original language	English
Article number	085015
Number of pages	9
Journal	Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Volume	61
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6587/ab249c
Publication status	Published - 21 Jun 2019

Funding

We thank F Y Li for fruitful discussions. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11675108, 11774227, 11721091, and 11655002), Science Challenge Project (No.TZ2018005) of China, UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (Grant No. EP/N028694/1), the European Union H2020 Research and Innovation Programme LASERLAB EUROPE (654148) and EuPRAXIA (653782). The authors would like to acknowledge the OSIRIS Consortium, consisting of UCLA and IST (Lisbon, Portugal) for the use of OSIRIS and the visXD framework. Simulations were performed on the Supercomputer at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The data that support the findings of this study are available at DOI: 10.15129/dec6d897-cff0-4e20-8ec8-a543442ee235.

Keywords

electron injection
laser-driven plasma bubble
external magnetic field
sub-femtosecond electron bunches

Access to Document

10.1088/1361-6587/ab249c

Zhao-etal-PPCF-2019-Sub-femtosecond-electron-bunches-in-laser-wakefield-accelerationAccepted author manuscript, 4.61 MB

Cite this

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title = "Sub-femtosecond electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration via injection suppression with a magnetic field",

abstract = "It is shown that electron injection into a laser-driven plasma bubble can be manipulated by applying an external magnetic field in the presence of a plasma density gradient. The down-ramp of the density-tailored plasma locally reduces the plasma wave phase velocity, which triggers injection. The longitudinal magnetic field dynamically induces an expanding hole in the electron density distribution at the rear of the wake bubble, which reduces the peak electron velocity in its vicinity. Electron injection is suppressed when the electron velocity drops below the phase velocity, which depends on the size of the density hole. This enables the start and end of electron injection to be independently controlled, which allows generation of sub-femtosecond electron bunches with peak currents of a few kilo-Ampere, for an applied magnetic field of ∼ 10 Tesla.",

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AU - Zhao, Q

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AU - Hidding, B

AU - Jaroszynski, D A

AU - Assmann, R

AU - Sheng, Z M

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N2 - It is shown that electron injection into a laser-driven plasma bubble can be manipulated by applying an external magnetic field in the presence of a plasma density gradient. The down-ramp of the density-tailored plasma locally reduces the plasma wave phase velocity, which triggers injection. The longitudinal magnetic field dynamically induces an expanding hole in the electron density distribution at the rear of the wake bubble, which reduces the peak electron velocity in its vicinity. Electron injection is suppressed when the electron velocity drops below the phase velocity, which depends on the size of the density hole. This enables the start and end of electron injection to be independently controlled, which allows generation of sub-femtosecond electron bunches with peak currents of a few kilo-Ampere, for an applied magnetic field of ∼ 10 Tesla.

AB - It is shown that electron injection into a laser-driven plasma bubble can be manipulated by applying an external magnetic field in the presence of a plasma density gradient. The down-ramp of the density-tailored plasma locally reduces the plasma wave phase velocity, which triggers injection. The longitudinal magnetic field dynamically induces an expanding hole in the electron density distribution at the rear of the wake bubble, which reduces the peak electron velocity in its vicinity. Electron injection is suppressed when the electron velocity drops below the phase velocity, which depends on the size of the density hole. This enables the start and end of electron injection to be independently controlled, which allows generation of sub-femtosecond electron bunches with peak currents of a few kilo-Ampere, for an applied magnetic field of ∼ 10 Tesla.

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KW - external magnetic field

KW - sub-femtosecond electron bunches

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Sub-femtosecond electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration via injection suppression with a magnetic field

Abstract

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Keywords

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Laserlab-Europe IV (H2020 INFRA IA)

EuPRAXIA (H2020 INFRA DEV)

Cite this

Sub-femtosecond electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration via injection suppression with a magnetic field

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

Laserlab-Europe IV (H2020 INFRA IA)

EuPRAXIA (H2020 INFRA DEV)

Cite this