Plasma accelerators: development of advanced all-optical plasma channels

In a laser wakefield accelerator an intense laser pulse propagating by way of a plasma excites a trailing plasma wave by way of the motion of the ponderomotive power, which expels electrons from the area of the laser pulse. The longitudinal electrical discipline on this plasma wakefield could be greater than three orders of magnitude bigger than that present in standard RF accelerators. Particles injected into the proper section of the plasma wave can subsequently be accelerated to energies of order 1 GeV in just a few tens of millimetres. Laser-driven plasma accelerators might subsequently drive novel, very compact sources of particles and ultrafast radiation.

Work on plasma accelerators in Oxford is undertaken by a collaboration of analysis teams within the sub-departments of Particle Physics and Atomic & Laser Physics. Because of this functions to work on this space needs to be made to the sub-departments of Atomic & Laser physics AND to Particle Physics. Info on the way to apply could be discovered on the Atomic & Laser Physics and Particle Physics internet pages.

Additional info on our analysis and the Oxford Plasma Accelerator Laboratory (OPAL)could be discovered on the laser-plasma accelerator group website

Growth of superior all-optical plasma channels

The Oxford group has developed a brand new kind of plasma channel generated by auxiliary laser pulses: the hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized (HOFI) plasma channel. On this strategy an preliminary column of plasma is created by ionizing a fuel alongside the longitudinally-extended focus created by an axicon lens. This plasma column expands radially, driving a shock wave into the encompassing, unionized fuel. The electron density of the construction fashioned on this approach has a minimal on axis, surrounded by a low wall of upper electron density; this transverse electron profile kinds a gradient refractive index optical “fibre”.

Since HOFI channels are free-standing they’re proof against laser harm, and therefore they’re very promising levels for future multi-GeV plasma accelerators working at kilohertz pulse repetition charges. 

On this challenge we’ll proceed to develop HOFI channels for functions to laser-driven plasma accelerators. We’ll undertake numerical simulations and experiments to research the potential for controlling the longitudinal and transverse electron density of the channel, with the target of additional controlling the injection and acceleration of electrons in a laser-plasma accelerator while sustaining low bunch emittance. These channels might be utilized in experiments at nationwide high-power laser services (such because the close by Central Laser Facility and Daresbury Laboratory), and on the laboratories of our colleagues at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich. It would subsequently be probably that the coed might want to journey to make use of services of this sort within the UK and in Europe.