Multi-pulse laser wakefield acceleration: a new route to efficient, high-repetition-rate plasma accelerators and high flux radiation sources

Hooker, SM, Bartolini, R, Mangles, SPD, Tunnermann, A, Corner, Laura ORCID: 0000-0002-3882-1272, Limpert, J, Seryi, A and Walczak, R (2014) Multi-pulse laser wakefield acceleration: a new route to efficient, high-repetition-rate plasma accelerators and high flux radiation sources Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 47 (23). 234003-. ISSN 0953-4075, 1361-6455

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Abstract

Laser-driven plasma accelerators can generate accelerating gradients three orders of magnitude larger than radio-frequency accelerators and have achieved beam energies above 1 GeV in centimetre long stages. However, the pulse repetition rate and wall-plug efficiency of laser plasma accelerators is limited by the driving laser to less than approximately 1 Hz and 0.1% respectively. Here we investigate the prospects for exciting the plasma wave with trains of low-energy laser pulses rather than a single high-energy pulse. Resonantly exciting the wakefield in this way would enable the use of different technologies, such as fibre or thin-disc lasers, which are able to operate at multi-kilohertz pulse repetition rates and with wall-plug efficiencies two orders of magnitude higher than current laser systems. We outline the parameters of efficient, GeV-scale, 10 kHz plasma accelerators and show that they could drive compact x-ray sources with average photon fluxes comparable to those of third-generation light source but with significantly improved temporal resolution. Likewise free-electron laser (FEL) operation could be driven with comparable peak power but with significantly larger repetition rates than extant FELs.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	plasma accelerator, x-ray, radiation source, free-electron laser
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	17 Aug 2020 08:29
Last Modified:	23 May 2026 01:28
DOI:	10.1088/0953-4075/47/23/234003
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3097779
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