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Space radiation with inherently broadband spectral flux poses a huge danger to astronauts and electronics on aircraft, but it is hard to simulate such feature with conventional radiation sources. Using a tabletop laser-plasma accelerator, we can reproduce exponential energy particle beams as similar as possible to these in space radiation. We used such an electron beam to study the electron radiation effects on the surface structure and performance of two-dimensional material (FePS3). Energetic electron beam led to bulk sample cleavage and damage between areas of uneven thickness. For the FePS3 sheet sample, electron radiation transformed it from crystalline state to amorphous state, causing the sample surface to rough. The full widths at the half maximum of characteristic Raman peaks became larger, and the intensities of characteristic Raman peaks became weak or even disappeared dramatically under electron radiation. This trend became more obvious for thinner samples, and this phenomenon was attributed to the cleavage of P–P and P–S bonds, destabilizing the bipyramid structure of [P2S6]4– unit. The results are of great significance for testing the maximum allowable radiation dose for the two-dimensional material, implying that FePS3 cannot withstand such energetic electron radiation without an essential shield.

A new scheme is proposed to improve the electron beam quality of ionization-induced injection by tailoring gas profile in laser wakefield acceleration. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that the ionization-induced injection mainly occurs in high-density stage and automatically truncates in low-density stage due to the decrease of wakefield potential difference. The beam loading can be compensated by the elongated beam resulting from the density transition stage. The beam quality can be improved by shorter injection distance and beam loading effect. A quasi-monoenergetic electron beam with a central energy of 258 MeV and an energy spread of 5.1% is obtained under certain laser-plasma conditions.