TeV/m catapult acceleration of electrons in graphene layers

Bontoiu, Cristian ORCID: 0000-0002-1184-057X, Apsimon, Oznur, Kukstas, Egidijus, Rodin, Volodymyr, Yadav, Monika, Welsch, Carsten, Resta-Lopez, Javier, Bonatto, Alexandre and Xia, Guoxing (2023) TeV/m catapult acceleration of electrons in graphene layers. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 13 (1). 1330-.

PDF
TeVm catapult acceleration of electrons in graphene layers.pdf - Published version
Download (7MB) | Preview

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28617-w

Abstract

Recent nanotechnology advances enable fabrication of layered structures with controllable inter-layer gap, giving the ultra-violet (UV) lasers access to solid-state plasmas which can be used as medium for electron acceleration. By using a linearly polarized 3 fs-long laser pulse of 100 nm wavelength and 10[Formula: see text] W/cm[Formula: see text] peak intensity, we show numerically that electron bunches can be accelerated along a stack of ionized graphene layers. Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations reveal a new self-injection mechanism based on edge plasma oscillations, whose amplitude depends on the distance between the graphene layers. Nanometre-size electron ribbons are electrostatically catapulted into buckets of longitudinal electric fields in less than 1 fs, as opposed to the slow electrostatic pull, common to laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) schemes in gas-plasma. Acceleration then proceeds in the blowout regime at a gradient of 4.79 TeV/m yielding a 0.4 fs-long bunch with a total charge in excess of 2.5 pC and an average energy of 6.94 MeV, after travelling through a graphene target as short as 1.5 [Formula: see text]m. These parameters are unprecedented within the LWFA research area and, if confirmed experimentally, may have an impact on fundamental femtosecond research.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Physical Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	06 Mar 2023 09:10
Last Modified:	06 Apr 2023 03:23
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-023-28617-w
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3168773