Experimental Observation of Direct Laser Acceleration in a Low Density Self-Modulated Laser Wakefield Acceleration Regime
Abstract
Direct Laser Acceleration (DLA) is observed in an experiment on the Titan laser system at the Jupiter Laser Facility in a low density (3x1017 cm-3) regime of a self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator. A forking structure is show in the highest energies (>50 MeV) of an accelerated electron beam (<50 mrad) previously shown to indicate the effects of DLA during the acceleration process. The experimental results are confirmed in a quasi-3D simulation using OSIRIS under similar conditions to the experiment, i.e. 1 ps laser pulse, and moderate a0 = 2.7. The simulation results show a stable SM-LWFA for the length of a 10 mm accelerator and confirm DLA being the dominant acceleration mechanism for the highest energy electrons.
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344 and supported by the DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program (Fusion Energy Sciences) under SCW1575-1.- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020APS..DPPJ04012K