Paper | Title | Page |
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THPMN114 | Recent Progress at LBNL on Characterization of Laser Wakefield Accelerated Electron Bunches Using Coherent Transition Radiation | 2981 |
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Funding: Work supported by US DoE Office of High Energy Physics under contract DE-AC03-76SF0098 and DARPA.
At LBNL, laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) now produce ultra-short electron bunches with energies up to 1 GeV[1]. As femtosecond electron bunches exit the plasma they radiate a strong burst in the terahertz range[2,3], via coherent transition radiation (CTR). Measuring the CTR properties allows non-invasive bunch-length diagnostics[4], a key to continuing rapid advance in LWFA technology. In addition, this method of CTR generation provides very high peak power that can lead novel THz-based applications. Experimental bunch length characterizations through electro-optic sampling as well as bolometric analysis are presented. Measurements demonstrate both the shot-by-shot stability of bunch parameters, and femtosecond synchronization between bunch, THz pulse, and laser beam.
[1] W. P. Leemans et al., Nature Physics 2, 696(2006)[2] W. P. Leemans et al., PRL 91, 074802(2003)[3] C. B. Schroeder et al., PRE 69, 016501(2004)[4] J. van Tilborg et al., PRL 96, 014801(2006) |