Plasma accelerators: Radiation generation in high-repetition rate plasma accelerators

In a laser wakefield accelerator an intense laser pulse propagating by a plasma excites a trailing plasma wave through the motion of the ponderomotive pressure, which expels electrons from the area of the laser pulse. The longitudinal electrical discipline on this plasma wakefield might be greater than three orders of magnitude bigger than that present in standard RF accelerators. Particles injected into the right 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. For that reason functions to work on this space needs to be made to the sub-departments of Atomic & Laser physics AND to Particle Physics. Info on learn how to apply might be discovered on the Atomic & Laser Physics and Particle Physics internet pages.

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

Radiation era in high-repetition charge plasma accelerators

Laser-driven plasma accelerators are ideally suited to driving very compact X-ray sources, with many potential functions in science and medication, reminiscent of high-resolution medical imaging of deep-seated tumours.

Radiation might be generated from a laser-accelerated electron bunch in a number of methods. The transverse electrical fields inside the plasma wave itself could cause the electron bunch to oscillate as it’s accelerated. This results in the era of broad-band “betatron” radiation, with photon energies sometimes within the 10 – 30 keV vary. Alternatively, colliding a laser-accelerated bunch with an intense, counter-propagating laser pulse can generate Thomson and Compton radiation with photon energies within the 100 keV – 1 MeV vary.

On this challenge the scholar will discover strategies for producing X-rays from laser-accelerated electrons. Of explicit curiosity can be radiation era from electron bunches accelerated in HOFI channels by single- or a number of laser pulses (e.g. in a P-MoPA). It’s anticipated that the challenge will contain a mixture of numerical simulations and experiments in our laboratory in Oxford and at nationwide and worldwide high-power laser amenities.