Paper | Title | Page |
---|---|---|
WEPP134 | Ultra-short x-ray Radiation coming from a Laser Wakefield Accelerator | 2809 |
|
||
A Laser Wakefield Accelerator (LWFA) is under development at LLNL Jupiter Laser Facility to produce multi-GeV electron bunches promising to provide a bright and compact source of x-ray radiation for high energy density studies. The interaction of a high power (200 TW), short laser (50 fs) pulse with neutral He gas can accelerate monoenergetic electrons up to 1 GeV in a stable self-guiding regime*, over a dephasing length of 1 cm (for a plasma density of 1.5x1018 cm-3), overcoming the limitation of vacuum diffraction and allowing long interaction lengths for LWFA. The waveguide can be extended over several centimeters by using a novel scheme, which employs an external magnetic field (up to 5 T uniform along 12 cm) to control the radial heat flux** resulting from the interaction of a high energy (100 J), long pulse (1 ns) laser with a gas tube. The acceleration of electrons over several centimeters can produce multi-GeV bunches and thus a powerful x-ray source. Analysis will be presented on femtosecond x-ray radiation produced by wiggling an electron bunch with energy above 1 GeV in this new LWFA scheme.
* W. Lu et al., Phys. Rev. Spec. Top-ac 10, 061301 (2007) |