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Increasing energy coupling into plasma waves by tailoring the laser radial focal spot distribution in a laser wakefield accelerator

Genoud, Guillaume LU ; Bloom, M. S. ; Vieira, J. ; Burza, Matthias LU ; Najmudin, Z. ; Persson, Anders LU ; Silva, L. O. ; Svensson, Kristoffer LU ; Wahlström, Claes-Göran LU and Mangles, S. P. D. (2013) In Physics of Plasmas 20(6).
Abstract
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... (More)
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. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physics of Plasmas
volume
20
issue
6
article number
064501
publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
external identifiers
  • wos:000321273200060
  • scopus:84879950639
ISSN
1070-664X
DOI
10.1063/1.4810795
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5fed8cbd-2a47-450d-8aba-d43aafccaf82 (old id 3979206)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 09:49:00
date last changed
2022-04-03 23:36:01
@article{5fed8cbd-2a47-450d-8aba-d43aafccaf82,
  abstract     = {{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.}},
  author       = {{Genoud, Guillaume and Bloom, M. S. and Vieira, J. and Burza, Matthias and Najmudin, Z. and Persson, Anders and Silva, L. O. and Svensson, Kristoffer and Wahlström, Claes-Göran and Mangles, S. P. D.}},
  issn         = {{1070-664X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  publisher    = {{American Institute of Physics (AIP)}},
  series       = {{Physics of Plasmas}},
  title        = {{Increasing energy coupling into plasma waves by tailoring the laser radial focal spot distribution in a laser wakefield accelerator}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4810795}},
  doi          = {{10.1063/1.4810795}},
  volume       = {{20}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}