BARC/PUB/2012/1277

 
 

Role of the laser pulse-length in producing high-quality electron beams in a homogenous plasma

 
     
 
Author(s)

Upadhyay, A. K.; Samant, S. A.; Krishnagopal, S.
(BARC)

Source

Physics of Plasmas, 2012. Vol. 19 (7): pp. 73110

ABSTRACT

In laser wakefield acceleration, the pulse-length of the laser is an important parameter that affects the laser evolution and electron beam injection and acceleration in the bubble regime. Here, we use three-dimensional simulations to find, for a given plasma density, the optimal pulse-length that gives the best quality electron beam. For three different pulse lengths, we study the evolution dynamics of the laser spot-size and quality of the injected electron beam. We find that a pulse-length that is less than the theoretical optimum, τL=kλp/√2Πc, derived from linear theory, gives the best beam quality. Conversely, our simulations suggest that for a given laser system, with a fixed pulse-length, there is an optimal value of the plasma density that will give the best quality accelerated beams in experiments. For an rms pulse-length of 10 fs (around 24 fs FWHM), this corresponds to a plasma density of around 3.4x1018/cm3. For these parameters, we obtain, in a homogenous plasma and with a single laser, an electron beam with an energy of around 700 MeV, an energy-spread less than 2%, and rms normalized emittance of a few Π mm-mrad.

 
 
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