USTRAT/SUPA, Glasgow
University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee, Scotland
UAD, Dundee
Funding: The U.K. EPSRC and the European Community - New and Emerging Science and Technology Activity under the FP6 “Structuring the European Research Area” programme (project EuroLEAP, contract number 028514)
The Advanced Laser-Plasma High-Energy Accelerators towards X-rays (ALPHA-X) programme* is developing laser-plasma accelerators for the production of ultra-short electron beams as drivers of incoherent and coherent radiation sources from plasma and magnetic undulators**. Initial quantitative measurements of the electron beam properties have been made. A high power (20 TW) femtosecond laser pulse is focused into a gas jet (length 2 mm) and electrons from the laser-induced plasma are self-injected into the accelerating potential of the plasma density wake behind the laser pulse. The electron beam pointing as it exits the gas jet is as large as 10 mrad. Understanding the pointing stability is an essential step for reproducible beam transport and we present a theoretical model to account for this behaviour. The beam divergence is as low as 2 mrad, which is consistent with a normalised emittance of the order of 1 pi mm mrad. The maximum central energy of the beam is ~90 MeV with r.m.s. relative energy spread as low as 0.8%. An analysis of this unexpectedly high beam quality is presented and its impact on the viability of a free-electron laser*** driven by such a beam is examined.
* D. A. Jaroszynski et al., Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 364, 689 (2006).
** H.-P. Schlenvoigt et al., Nature Phys. 4, 130 (2008).
*** B. Shepherd and J. Clarke, Proc. EPAC 2006, 3580 (2006).
