Betatron x-ray radiation in the self-modulated laser wakefield acceleration regime: prospects for a novel probe at large scale laser facilities. (18th December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Albert, F.; Lemos, N.; Shaw, J.L.; King, P.M.; Pollock, B.B.; Goyon, C.; Schumaker, W.; Saunders, A.M.; Marsh, K.A.; Pak, A.; Ralph, J.E.; Martins, J.L.; Amorim, L.D.; Falcone, R.W.; Glenzer, S.H.; Moody, J.D.; Joshi, C.
• Is Part Of: Nuclear fusion. Volume 59:Number 3(2019:Mar.)
• Publication Date: 2018-12-18
• Subjects: laser -- plasma -- x-ray sources -- particle acceleration; Nuclear fusion -- Periodicals; 621.48405
• DOI: 10.1088/1741-4326/aad058
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0029-5515

Abstract

Abstract: This paper presents an experimental and theoretical study of betatron x-ray radiation from laser wakefield acceleration in the self-modulated regime. Our experiments use picosecond duration laser pulses up to 150 J, for plasmas with electronic densities on the order of 10 19 cm −3 . In the self-modulated regime, electrons accelerated in the wake of the laser pulse are subject to both the longitudinal plasma and transverse laser electrical fields. As a result, they undergo oscillations and radiate a synchrotron-like spectrum. In our experimental configuration, electrons accelerated up to about 300 MeV, as well as betatron x-ray spectra with energies of 10 s of keV and photon fluxes between 10 8 –10 10 photons/eV/Sr are reported. Our experiments open the prospect of using betatron x-ray radiation for applications, and the source could be competitive with current x-ray backlighting methods on multi-kilojoule laser systems used for high energy density or fusion sciences.