Divergence angle consideration in energy spread measurement for high-quality relativistic electron beam in laser wakefield acceleration

The thorough exploration of the transverse quality represented by divergence angle has been lacking yet in the energy spread measurement of the relativistic electron beam for laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA). In this work, we fill this gap by numerical simulations based on the experimental data, which indicate that in a C-shape magnet, magnetic field possesses the beam focusing effect, considering that the divergence angle will result in an increase in the full width at half maxima(FWHM) of the electron density distribution in a uniformly isotropic manner, while the length-to-width ratio decreases. This indicates that the energy spread obtained from the electron deflection distance is smaller than the actual value, regardless of the divergence angle. A promising and efficient way to accurately correct the value is presented by considering the divergence angle(for instance, for an electron beam with a length-to-width ratio of 1.12, the energy spread correct from 1.2% to 1.5%), providing a reference for developing the high-quality electron beam source.

Acceleration and radiation of externally injected electrons in laser plasma wakefield driven by a Laguerre-Gaussian pulse

By using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, externally injected electron beam acceleration and radiation in donut-like wake fields driven by a Laguerre-Gaussian pulse are investigated. Studies show that in the acceleration process the total charge and azimuthal momenta of electrons can be stably maintained at a distance of a few hundreds of micrometers. Electrons experience low-frequency spiral rotation and high-frequency betatron oscillation, which leads to a synchrotron-like radiation. The radiation spectrum is mainly determined by the betatron motion of electrons. The far field distribution of radiation intensity shows axial symmetry due to the uniform transverse injection and spiral rotation of electrons. Our studies suggest a new way to simultaneously generate hollow electron beam and radiation source from a compact laser plasma accelerator.

Beam Line Design of Compact Laser Plasma Accelerator

A compact laser plasma accelerator that is a novel accelerator based on the interaction of ultra-intense laser and plasmas is being built now at Peking University. According to the results of experiments and numerical simulations, a beam line combining the advantages of quadrupole and analyzing magnets is designed to deliver proton beams with energy ranging from 1 to 44MeV, energy spread within ±5% and 10^6-8 protons per pulse. It turns out that the existence of space charge force of protons can be ignored for the increase of transverse and longitudinal envelopes even in the case of 10^9 protons in one pulse. To cope with the challenge to obtain a uniform distribution of protons at the final experiment target in laser acceleration, we manipulate the envelope beam waist in the Y direction to a proper position and obtain a relatively good distribution uniformity of protons with an energy spread of 0-±5%0.

Photonuclear production of nuclear isomers using bremsstrahlung induced by laser-wakefield electrons

In this study,we theoretically investigate the feasibility of using laser-wakefield accelerated(LWFA)electrons for the photonuclear measurement of nuclear isomers according to the characteristics of the electrons obtained from LWFA experiments conducted at the Compact Laser-Plasma Accelerator(CLAPA)laboratory.The experiments at the CLAPA show that a stable electron beam with an energy of 78-135 MeV and a charge of 300-600 pC can be obtained.The bremsstrahlung spectra were simulated using Geant4,which suggests that a bremsstrahlung source with a peak intensity of 10^(19) photons/s can be generated.Theoretical calculations of isomer production cross sections from the photonuclear reactions on six target nuclei,^(197)Au,^(180)Hf,^(159)Tb,^(115)In,^(103)Rh,and ^(90)Zr,were performed and compared with the available experimental data in EXFOR,which suggest that further experiments are required for a series of photonuclear reaction channels.Flux-averaged cross sections and isomer ratios(IR)resulting from such bremsstrahlung sources are theoretically deduced.The results suggest that IR measurements can be used to constrain nuclear components,such asγstrength function and optical model potential.In addition,the detection of the decay characteristics was evaluated with Geant4 simulations.The use of the LWFA electron beam and its bremsstrahlung for photonuclear studies involving nuclear isomers is anticipated.

Prospect of ultrahigh-resolution fast neutron absorption spectroscopy based on a laser plasma electron accelerator

Fast neutron absorption spectroscopy is widely used in the study of nuclear structure and element analysis. However,due to the traditional neutron source pulse duration being of the order of nanoseconds, it is difficult to obtain a high-resolution absorption spectrum. Thus, we present a method of ultrahigh energy-resolution absorption spectroscopy via a high repetition rate, picosecond duration pulsed neutron source driven by a terawatt laser. The technology of single neutron count is used, which results in easily distinguishing the width of approximately 20 keV at 2 MeV and an asymmetric shape of the neutron absorption peak. The absorption spectroscopy based on a laser neutron source has one order of magnitude higher energy-resolution power than the state-of-the-art traditional neutron sources, which could be of benefit for precisely measuring nuclear structure data.

Applications of object detection networks in high-power laser systems and experiments

The recent advent of deep artificial neural networks has resulted in a dramatic increase in performance for object classification and detection.While pre-trained with everyday objects,we find that a state-of-the-art object detection architecture can very efficiently be fine-tuned to work on a variety of object detection tasks in a high-power laser laboratory.In this paper,three exemplary applications are presented.We show that the plasma waves in a laser±plasma accelerator can be detected and located on the optical shadowgrams.The plasma wavelength and plasma density are estimated accordingly.Furthermore,we present the detection of all the peaks in an electron energy spectrum of the accelerated electron beam,and the beam charge of each peak is estimated accordingly.Lastly,we demonstrate the detection of optical damage in a high-power laser system.The reliability of the object detector is demonstrated over1000 laser shots in each application.Our study shows that deep object detection networks are suitable to assist online and offline experimental analysis,even with small training sets.We believe that the presented methodology is adaptable yet robust,and we encourage further applications in Hz-level or kHz-level high-power laser facilities regarding the control and diagnostic tools,especially for those involving image data.

Observation of optical transition radiation from electron beams generated by laser plasma accelerator

Laser plasma accelerators （LPAs） have made great progress, achieving electron beam with energy up to 1 GeV from a centimeter scale capillary plasma waveguide. Here, we report the measurement of optical transition radiation （OTR） from the capillary-based LPA electron beams. Transition radiation images, produced by electrons passing through two separate foils （located at 2.3 m and 3.8 m away from the exit of the LPA） were recorded with a high resolution imaging system, respectively. Two magnetic quadrupole lenses were placed right after the capillary to focus and collimate the electron beams. Significant localized spikes appeared in the OTR images when the electron beam was focused by the magnetic quadrupole lenses, indicating the coherence of the radiation and the existence of ultrashort longitudinal structures inside the electron beam.

Distribution uniformity of laser-accelerated proton beams

Compared with conventional accelerators, laser plasma accelerators can generate high energy ions at a greatly reduced scale, due to their TV/m acceleration gradient. A compact laser plasma accelerator （CLAPA） has been built at the Institute of Heavy Ion Physics at Peking University. It will be used for applied research like biological irradiation, astrophysics simulations, etc. A beamline system with multiple quadrupoles and an analyzing magnet for laser-accelerated ions is proposed here. Since laser-accelerated ion beams have broad energy spectra and large angular divergence, the parameters （beam waist position in the Y direction, beam line layout, drift distance, magnet angles etc.） of the beamline system are carefully designed and optimised to obtain a radially symmetric proton distribution at the irradiation platform. Requirements of energy selection and differences in focusing or defocusing in application systems greatly influence the evolution of proton distributions. With optimal parameters, radially symmetric proton distributions can be achieved and protons with different energy spread within ±5% have similar transverse areas at the experiment target.

Generation of high-quality electron beams by ionization injection in a single acceleration stage

Ionization-induced electron injection in laser wakefield accelerators, which was recently proposed to lower the laser intensity threshold for electron trapping into the wake wave, has the drawback of generating electron beams with large and continuous energy spreads, severely limiting their future applications. Complex target designs based on separating the electron trapping and acceleration stages were proposed as the only way for getting small energy-spread electron beams. Here, based on the self-truncated ionization-injection concept which requires the use of unmatched laser–plasma parameters and by using tens of TW laser pulses focused onto a gas jet of helium mixed with low concentrations of nitrogen, we demonstrate single-stage laser wakefield acceleration of multi-hundred MeV electron bunches with energy spreads of a few percent. The experimental results are verified by PIC simulations.

Preliminary design of a laser accelerator beam line

A compact laser plasma accelerator （CLAPA） an RPA-PSA mechanism or other acceleration mechanisms is being built at Peking University, which is based on The beam produced by this laser accelerator has the characteristics of short duration, high pulse current, large divergence angle, and wide energy spectrum. The beam cannot be produced by a normal ion source and accelerator. The space charge field in the initial is very strong. According to the beam parameters from preparatory experiments and theoretical simulations, a compact beam line is preliminarily designed. The beam line mainly consists of common transport elements to deliver proton beam with the energy of 1 50 MeV, energy spread of 0-±1% and current of 0-10^8 proton per pulse to satisfy the requirement of different experiments. The simulation result of a 15 MeV proton beam with an energy spread of ±1%, current of 400 mA, and final spot radius of 9 mm is presented in this paper.

Overview and specifications of laser and target areas at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory

We present the main features of the ultrashort, high-intensity laser installation at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory(ILIL) including laser, beam transport and target area specifications. The laboratory was designed to host laser–target interaction experiments of more than 220 TW peak power, in flexible focusing configurations, with ultrarelativistic intensity on the target. Specifications have been established via dedicated optical diagnostic assemblies and commissioning interaction experiments. In this paper we give a summary of laser specifications available to users,including spatial, spectral and temporal contrast features. The layout of the experimental target areas is presented, with attention to the available configurations of laser focusing geometries and diagnostics. Finally, we discuss radiation protection measures and mechanical stability of the laser focal spot on the target.