Goers AJ, Hine GA, Feder L, Miao B, Salehi F, Wahlstrand JK, Milchberg HM. Multi-MeV Electron Acceleration by Subterawatt Laser Pulses.
Phys Rev Lett 2015;
115:194802. [PMID:
26588390 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.115.194802]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
We demonstrate laser-plasma acceleration of high charge electron beams to the ∼10 MeV scale using ultrashort laser pulses with as little energy as 10 mJ. This result is made possible by an extremely dense and thin hydrogen gas jet. Total charge up to ∼0.5 nC is measured for energies >1 MeV. Acceleration is correlated to the presence of a relativistically self-focused laser filament accompanied by an intense coherent broadband light flash, associated with wave breaking, which can radiate more than ∼3% of the laser energy in a ∼1 fs bandwidth consistent with half-cycle optical emission. Our results enable truly portable applications of laser-driven acceleration, such as low dose radiography, ultrafast probing of matter, and isotope production.
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