• D. Panasenko, A.J. Gonsalves, W. Leemans, K. Nakamura, C.B. Schroeder, A.J. Shu, C. Tóth
  LBNL, Berkeley, California

Funding: US Department of Energy

Staging Laser Plasma Accelerators (LPA), which is necessary in order to substantially increase the electron beam energy, requires incoupling additional laser beams into accelerating stages. To preserve high accelerating gradient of LPA, it is imperative to minimize the distance that is needed for laser incoupling. Using a conventional mirror with PW-class lasers will require the incoupling distance to be as long as tens of meters due to limitations imposed by laser induced damage of the optic. In this presentation we will describe a new approach for the laser incoupling that is based on planar water jet plasma mirror. The plasma mirror can operate as close as few cm to the focus of the laser thus minimizing the coupling distance. Using a water jet instead of a solid target avoids mechanical scanning of the target surface as well as contamination of the vacuum by laser breakdown debris. Experimental results showing performance of the water jet plasma mirror will be presented and progress in staging experiments will be discussed