1. Laser Wakefield Acceleration Using Mid-Infrared Laser Pulses
- Author
-
Zheng-Ming Sheng, Y. Q. Ma, Liejia Qian, Nasr A. M. Hafz, Fu-Qiu Shao, and Guo-Bo Zhang
- Subjects
Physics ,Active laser medium ,business.industry ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Laser pumping ,Injection seeder ,Laser ,01 natural sciences ,Beam parameter product ,010305 fluids & plasmas ,Round-trip gain ,law.invention ,Optics ,law ,0103 physical sciences ,Laser beam quality ,Laser power scaling ,010306 general physics ,business - Abstract
We study a laser wakefield acceleration driven by mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser pulses through two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Since a mid-IR laser pulse can deliver a larger ponderomotive force as compared with the usual 0.8 μm wavelength laser pulse, it is found that electron self-injection into the wake wave occurs at an earlier time, the plasma density threshold for injection becomes lower, and the electron beam charge is substantially enhanced. Meanwhile, our study also shows that quasimonoenergetic electron beams with a narrow energy-spread can be generated by using mid-IR laser pulses. Such a mid-IR laser pulse can provide a feasible method for obtaining a high quality and high charge electron beam. Therefore, the current efforts on constructing mid-IR terawatt laser systems can greatly benefit the laser wakefield acceleration research.
- Published
- 2016