Increasing energy coupling into plasma waves by tailoring the laser radial focal spot distribution in a laser wakefield accelerator
Författare
Summary, in English
By controlling the focal spot quality with a deformable mirror, we are able to show that increasing the fraction of pulse energy contained within the central part of the focal spot, while keeping the total energy and central spot size constant, significantly increases the amount of energy transferred to the wakefield: Our measurements show that the laser loses significantly more laser energy and undergoes greater redshifting and that more charge is produced in the accelerated beam. Three dimensional particle in cell simulations performed with accurate representations of the measured focal spot intensity distribution confirm that energy in the wings of the focal spot is effectively wasted. Even though self-focusing occurs, energy in the wings of the focal spot distribution is not coupled into the wakefield, emphasising the vital importance of high quality focal spot profiles in experiments. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2013
Språk
Engelska
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Physics of Plasmas
Volym
20
Issue
6
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Ämne
- Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1070-664X