• J.E. Ralph, C. Joshi, J.B. Rosenzweig, C. Sung, S. Tochitsky
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

To achieve phase locked injection of short electron bunches in a plasma beatwave accelerator, the Neptune Laboratory will utilize microbunching in an FEL or IFEL system. These systems require terahertz (THz) seed radiation on the order of 10 kW for the FEL and 10 MW for the IFEL bunchers. We report results of experiments on THz generation using nonlinear frequency mixing of CO2 laser lines in GaAs. A two-wavelength laser beam was split and sent onto a 2.5 cm long GaAs crystal cut for noncollinear phase matching. Low power measurements achieved ~1 W of 340 ?m radiation using 200 ns CO2 pump pulses with wavelengths 10.3?m and 10.6?m. We also demonstrated tunability of difference frequency radiation, producing 240?m by mixing two different CO2 laser lines. By going to shorter laser pulses and higher intensities, we were able to increase the conversion efficiency while decreasing the surface damage threshold. Using 200ps pulses we produced ~2 MW of 340 ?m radiation. Future studies in this area will focus on developing large diameter Quasi-Phase matched structures for production of high power THz radiation.

• C. Sung, C.E. Clayton, C. Joshi, P. Musumeci, C. Pellegrini, J.E. Ralph, S. Reiche, J.B. Rosenzweig, S. Tochitsky
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

In order to obtain monoenergetic acceleration of electrons, phase-locked injection using electron microbunches shorter than the accelerating structure is necessary. For a laser-driven plasma beatwave accelerator experiment, we propose to microbunch the electrons by interaction with terahertz (THz) radiation in an undulator via two mechanisms– free electron laser (FEL) and inverse free electron laser (IFEL). Since the high power FIR radiation will be generated via difference frequency mixing in GaAs by the same CO2 beatwave used to drive the plasma wave, electrons could be phase-locked and pre-bunched into a series of microbunches separated with the same periodicity. Here we examine the criteria for undulator design and present simulation results for both IFEL and FEL approaches. Using different CO2 laser lines, electrons can be microbunched with different periodicity 300 – 100 mm suitable for injection into plasma densities in the range 1016 – 1017 cm-3, respectively. The requirement on the THz radiation power and the electron beam qualities are also discussed.

• S. Reiche, C. Joshi, C. Pellegrini, J.B. Rosenzweig, S. Tochitsky
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• G. Shvets
  The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

Free-Electron Laser in the THz range can be used to generate high output power radiation or to modulate the electron beam longitudinally on the radiation wavelength scale. Microbunching on the scale of 1-5 THz is of particular importance for potential phase-locking of a modulated electron beam to a laser-driven plasma accelerating structure. However the lack of a seeding source for the FEL at this spectral range limits operation to a SASE FEL only, which denies a subpicosecond synchronization of the current modulation or radiation with an external laser source. One possibility to overcome this problem is to seed the FEL with two external laser beams, which difference (beat-wave) frequency is matched to the resonant FEL frequency in the THz range. In this presentation we study feasibility of an experiment on laser beat-wave injection in the THz FEL considered at the UCLA Neptune Laboratory, where both a high brightness photoinjector and a two-wavelength, TW-class CO2 laser system exist. By incorporating the energy modulation of the electron beam by the ponderomotive force of the beat-wave in a modified version of the time-dependent FEL code Genesis 1.3, the performance of a FEL at Neptune is simulated and analyzed.

• A. Doyuran, R.J. England, C. Joshi, J. Lim, J.B. Rosenzweig, S. Tochitsky, G. Travish, O. Williams
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

An Inverse Compton Scattering (ICS) experiment, which will investigate nonlinear properties of scattering utilizing a terawatt CO2 laser system with various polarizations, is ongoing at the UCLA Neptune Laboratory. When the normalized amplitude of the incident laser’s vector potential a0 is larger than unity the scattering occurs in the nonlinear region; therefore, higher harmonics are also produced. ICS can be used, e.g., for a polarized positron source by striking a thin target (such as tungsten) with the polarized X-rays. As such, it is critical to demonstrate the production of polarized scattered photons and to investigate the ICS process as it enters the nonlinear regime. We present the description of the experimental set up and equipment utilized, including diagnostics for electron and photon beam detection. We present the current status of the experiment.

• P. Musumeci, S. Boucher, C.E. Clayton, A. Doyuran, R.J. England, C. Joshi, C. Pellegrini, J.E. Ralph, J.B. Rosenzweig, C. Sung, S. Tochitsky, G. Travish, R.B. Yoder
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• S.V. Tolmachev, A. Varfolomeev, A. Varfolomeev, T.V. Yarovoi
  RRC Kurchatov Institute, Moscow