In laser wakefield acceleration,injecting an external electron beam at a certain energy is a promising approach for achieving a high-quality electron beam with low energy spread and low emittance.In this paper,the pro...In laser wakefield acceleration,injecting an external electron beam at a certain energy is a promising approach for achieving a high-quality electron beam with low energy spread and low emittance.In this paper,the process of laser wakefield acceleration with an external injection at 10 pC has been studied in simulations.A Bayesian optimization method is used to optimize the key laser and plasma parameters so that the electron beam is accelerated to the expected energy with a small emittance and energy spread growth.The effect of the rising edge of the plasma on the transverse properties of the electron beam is simulated and optimized in order to ensure that the external electron beam is injected into the plasma without significant emittance growth.Finally,a high-quality electron beam with an energy of 1.5 GeV,a normalized transverse emittance of 0.5 mm·mrad and a relative energy spread of 0.5%at 10 pC is obtained.展开更多
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 compa...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.展开更多
The supersonic gas-jet target is an important experimental target for laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA),which has great potential for driving novel radiation sources such as betatron radiation and Compton scattering ...The supersonic gas-jet target is an important experimental target for laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA),which has great potential for driving novel radiation sources such as betatron radiation and Compton scattering gamma rays.According to different electron acceleration requirements,it is necessary to provide specific supersonic gas jets with different density profiles to generate electron beams with high quality and high repetition rates.In this study,the interference images and density profiles of different gas-jet targets were obtained through a modified Nomarski interference diagnosis system.The relationships between the gas density and back pressure,nozzle structure,and other key parameters were studied.Targets with different characteristics are conducive to meeting the various requirements of LWFA.展开更多
The effects of initial spin orientation on the final electron beam polarization in laser wakefield acceleration in a pre-polarized plasma are investigated theoretically and numerically.From the results of variation of...The effects of initial spin orientation on the final electron beam polarization in laser wakefield acceleration in a pre-polarized plasma are investigated theoretically and numerically.From the results of variation of the initial spin direction,the spin dynamics of the electron beam are found to depend on the self-injection mechanism.The effects of wakefields and laser fields are studied using test particle dynamics and particle-in-cell simulations based on the Thomas-Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equation.Compared with transverse injection,longitudinal injection is found to be preferable for obtaining a highly polarized electron beam.展开更多
The electron injection and acceleration driven by a few-cycle laser with a sharp vacuum-plasma boundary have been investigated through three-dimensional(3D)particle-in-cell simulations.It is found that an isotropic bo...The electron injection and acceleration driven by a few-cycle laser with a sharp vacuum-plasma boundary have been investigated through three-dimensional(3D)particle-in-cell simulations.It is found that an isotropic boundary impact injection(BII)first occurs at the vacuum-plasma boundary,and then carrier-envelope-phase(CEP)shift causes the transverse oscillation of the plasma bubble,resulting in a periodic electron self-injection(SI)in the laser polarization direction.It shows that the electron charge of the BII only accounts for a small part of the total charge,and the CEP can effectively tune the quality of the injected electron beam.The dependences of laser intensity and electron density on the total charge and the ratio of BII charge to the total charge are studied.The results are beneficial to electron acceleration and its applications,such as betatron radiation source.展开更多
Recent experimental data for anomalous magnetic moments strongly indicates the existence of new physics beyond the Standard Model.Energetic μ^(+) bunches are relevant to μ^(+) rare decay,spin rotation,resonance and ...Recent experimental data for anomalous magnetic moments strongly indicates the existence of new physics beyond the Standard Model.Energetic μ^(+) bunches are relevant to μ^(+) rare decay,spin rotation,resonance and relaxation(μSR)technology,future muon colliders,and neutrino factories.In this paper,we propose prompt μ^(+) acceleration in a nonlinear toroidal wakefield driven by a shaped steep-rising-front Laguerre–Gaussian(LG)laser pulse.An analytical model is described,which shows that a μ^(+) beam can be focused by an electron cylinder at the centerline of a toroidal bubble and accelerated by the front part of the longitudinal wakefield.A shaped LG laser with a short rise time can push plasma electrons,generating a higher-density electron sheath at the front of the bubble,which can enhance the acceleration field.The acceleration field driven by the shaped steep-rising-front LG laser pulse is about four times greater than that driven by a normal LG laser pulse.Our simulation results show that a 300 MeV μ^(+) bunch can be accelerated to 2 GeV and its transverse size is focused from an initial value of w_(0)=5μm to w=2μm in the toroidal bubble driven by the shaped steep-rising-front LG laser pulse with a normalized amplitude of a=22.展开更多
Laser wakefield accelerators（LWFAs） are compact accelerators which can produce femtosecond high-energy electron beams on a much smaller scale than the conventional radiofrequency accelerators. It is attributed to th...Laser wakefield accelerators（LWFAs） are compact accelerators which can produce femtosecond high-energy electron beams on a much smaller scale than the conventional radiofrequency accelerators. It is attributed to their high acceleration gradient which is about 3 orders of magnitude larger than the traditional ones. The past decade has witnessed the major breakthroughs and progress in developing the laser wakfield accelerators. To achieve the LWFAs suitable for applications,more and more attention has been paid to optimize the LWFAs for high-quality electron beams. A single-staged LWFA does not favor generating controllable electron beams beyond 1 Ge V since electron injection and acceleration are coupled and cannot be independently controlled. Staged LWFAs provide a promising route to overcome this disadvantage by decoupling injection from acceleration and thus the electron-beam quality as well as the stability can be greatly improved.This paper provides an overview of the physical conceptions of the LWFA, as well as the major breakthroughs and progress in developing LWFAs from single-stage to two-stage LWFAs.展开更多
X-ray sources with tunable energy spectra have a wide range of applications in different scenarios due to their different penetration depths.However,existing x-ray sources face difficulties in terms of energy regulati...X-ray sources with tunable energy spectra have a wide range of applications in different scenarios due to their different penetration depths.However,existing x-ray sources face difficulties in terms of energy regulation.In this paper,we present a scheme for tuning the energy spectrum of a betatron x-ray generated from a relativistic electron bunch oscillating in a plasma wakefield.The center energy of the x-ray source can be tuned from several keV to several hundred keV by changing the plasma density,thereby extending the control range by an order of magnitude.At different central energies,the brightness of the betatron radiation is in the range of 3.7×10^(22)to 5.5×10^(22)photons/(0.1%BW·s·mm^(2)·mrad^(2))and the photon divergence angle is about 2 mrad.This high-brightness,energy-controlled betatron source could pave the way to a wide range of applications requiring photons of specific energy,such as phase-contrast imaging in medicine,non-destructive testing and material analysis in industry,and imaging in nuclear physics.展开更多
In this study, we investigate the generation of twin γ ray beams in the collision of an ultrahigh intensity laser pulse with a laser wakefield accelerated electron beam using a particle-in-cell simulation. We conside...In this study, we investigate the generation of twin γ ray beams in the collision of an ultrahigh intensity laser pulse with a laser wakefield accelerated electron beam using a particle-in-cell simulation. We consider the composed target of a homogeneous underdense preplasma in front of an ultrathin solid foil. The electrons in the preplasma are trapped and accelerated by the wakefield. When the laser pulse is reflected by the thin solid foil, the wakefield accelerated electrons continue to move forward and pass through the foil almost without influence from the reflected laser pulse or foil. Consequently, two groups of γ ray flashes, with tunable time delay and energy, are generated by the wakefield accelerated electron beam interacting with the reflected laser pulse from the foil as well as another counter-propagating petawatt laser pulse behind the foil. Additionally, we study the dependence of the γ photon emission on the preplasma densities, driving laser polarization, and solid foil.展开更多
By using a high-intensity flying focus laser,the dephasingless[Phys.Rev.Lett.124134802(2020)]or phase-locked[Nat.Photon.14475(2020)]laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA)can be realized,which may overcome issues of laser ...By using a high-intensity flying focus laser,the dephasingless[Phys.Rev.Lett.124134802(2020)]or phase-locked[Nat.Photon.14475(2020)]laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA)can be realized,which may overcome issues of laser diffraction,pump depletion,and electron dephasing which are always suffered in usual LWFA.The scheme thus has the potentiality to accelerate electrons to Te V energy in a single acceleration stage.However,the controlled electron injection has not been self-consistently included in such schemes.Only external injection was suggested in previous theoretical studies,which requires other accelerators and is relatively difficulty to operate.Here,we numerically study the actively controlled density transition injection in phase-locked LWFA to get appropriate density profiles for amount of electron injection.The study shows that compared with LWFA driven by lasers with fixed focus,a larger plasma density gradient is necessary.Electrons experience both transverse and longitudinal loss during acceleration due to the superluminal group velocity of the driver and the variation of the wakefield structure.Furthermore,the periodic deformation and fracture of the flying focus laser in the high-density plasma plateau make the final injected charge also depend on the beginning position of the density downramp.Our studies show a possible way for amount of electron injection in LWFA driven by flying focus lasers.展开更多
Betatron radiation from laser wakefield accelerated electrons and X-rays scattered off a counter-propagating relativistic electron bunch arecollimated and hold the potential to extend the energy range to hard X-ray or...Betatron radiation from laser wakefield accelerated electrons and X-rays scattered off a counter-propagating relativistic electron bunch arecollimated and hold the potential to extend the energy range to hard X-ray or gamma ray band. The peak brightness of these incoherent radiations could reach the level of the brightest synchrotron light sources in the world due to their femtosecond pulse duration and source sizedown to a few micrometers. In this article, the principle and properties of these radiation sources are briefly reviewed and compared. Then wepresent our recent progress in betatron radiation enhancement in the perspective of both photon energy and photon number. The enhancement istriggered by using a clustering gas target, arousing a second injection of a fiercely oscillating electron bunch with large charge or stimulating aresonantly enhanced oscillation of the ionization injected electrons. By adopting these methods, bright photon source with energy over 100 keVis generated which would greatly impact applications such as nuclear physics, diagnostic radiology, laboratory astrophysics and high-energydensity science.展开更多
X-ray free-electron lasers(XFELs)can generate bright X-ray pulses with short durations and narrow bandwidths,leading to extensive applica-tions in many disciplines such as biology,materials science,and ultrafast scien...X-ray free-electron lasers(XFELs)can generate bright X-ray pulses with short durations and narrow bandwidths,leading to extensive applica-tions in many disciplines such as biology,materials science,and ultrafast science.Recently,there has been a growing demand for X-ray pulses with high photon energy,especially from developments in“diffraction-before-destruction”applications and in dynamic mesoscale materials science.Here,we propose utilizing the electron beams at XFELs to drive a meter-scale two-bunch plasma wakefield accelerator and double the energy of the accelerated beam in a compact and inexpensive way.Particle-in-cell simulations are performed to study the beam quality degradation under different beam loading scenarios and nonideal issues,and the results show that more than half of the accelerated beam can meet the requirements of XFELs.After its transport to the undulator,the accelerated beam can improve the photon energy to 22 keV by a factor of around four while maintaining the peak power,thus offering a promising pathway toward high-photon-energy XFELs.展开更多
Energy spectra, angular distributions, and temporal profiles of the photons produced by an all-optical Thomson scat- tering X-ray source are explored through numerical simulations based on the parameters of the SILEX-...Energy spectra, angular distributions, and temporal profiles of the photons produced by an all-optical Thomson scat- tering X-ray source are explored through numerical simulations based on the parameters of the SILEX-I laser system （800 nm, 30 fs, 300 TW） and the previous wakefield acceleration experimental results. The simulation results show that X-ray pulses with a duration of 30 fs and an emission angle of 50 mrad can be produced from such a source. Using the optimized electron parameters, X-ray pulses with better directivity and narrower energy spectra can be obtained. Besides the electron parameters, the laser parameters such as the wavelength, pulse duration, and spot size also affect the X-ray yield, the angular distribution, and the maximum photon energy, except the X-ray pulse duration which is slightly changed for the case of ultrafast laser-electron interaction.展开更多
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 ionizat...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 the 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.展开更多
The emergence of multi-petawatt laser facilities is expected to push forward the maximum energy gain that can be achieved in a single stage of a laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA)to tens of giga-electron volts,which b...The emergence of multi-petawatt laser facilities is expected to push forward the maximum energy gain that can be achieved in a single stage of a laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA)to tens of giga-electron volts,which begs the question-is it likely to impact particle physics by providing a truly compact particle collider?Colliders have very stringent requirements on beam energy,acceleration efficiency,and beam quality.In this article,we propose an LWFA scheme that can for the first time simultaneously achieve hitherto unrealized acceleration efficiency from the laser to the electron beam of>20%and a sub-1%energy spread using a stepwise plasma structure and a nonlinearly chirped laser pulse.Three-dimensional high-fidelity simulations show that the nonlinear chirp can effectively mitigate the laser waveform distortion and lengthen the acceleration distance.This,combined with an interstage rephasing process in the stepwise plasma,can triple the beam energy gain compared to that in a uniform plasma for a fixed laser energy,thereby dramatically increasing the efficiency.A dynamic beam loading effect can almost perfectly cancel the energy chirp that arises during the acceleration,leading to the sub-percent energy spread.This scheme is highly scalable and can be applied to petawatt LWFA scenarios.Scaling laws are obtained,which suggest that electron beams with parameters relevant for a Higgs factory could be reached with the proposed high-efficiency,low-energy-spread scheme.展开更多
An electron beam is obtained using laser wakefield electron accelerator, and converted into a γ-ray source after undergoing bremsstrahlung radiation in a dense material. A quasi-monoenergetic structure is observed wh...An electron beam is obtained using laser wakefield electron accelerator, and converted into a γ-ray source after undergoing bremsstrahlung radiation in a dense material. A quasi-monoenergetic structure is observed when the length of the plasma channel was modified. The structure has a 58-MeV peak energy, 15- mrad （full-width at half-maximum） divergence angle, and 340-pC charge. The γ-ray source generated by this high-quality electron beam is brighter and has higher spatial and temporal resolutions than other conventional sources. A γ-ray radiography demonstrational experiment is performed. Pictures of a ball with different layers made of different materials are taken. The results show a clear structure and density resolution.展开更多
A pulsed fast neutron source is critical for applications of fast neutron resonance radiography and fast neutron absorption spectroscopy.However,due to the large transversal source size(of the order of mm)and long pul...A pulsed fast neutron source is critical for applications of fast neutron resonance radiography and fast neutron absorption spectroscopy.However,due to the large transversal source size(of the order of mm)and long pulse duration(of the order of ns)of traditional pulsed fast neutron sources,it is difficult to realize high-contrast neutron imaging with high spatial resolution and a fine absorption spectrum.Here,we experimentally present a micro-size ultra-short pulsed neutron source by a table-top laser-plasma wakefield electron accelerator driving a photofission reaction in a thin metal converter.A fast neutron source with source size of approximately 500μm and duration of approximately 36 ps has been driven by a tens of MeV,collimated,micro-size electron beam via a hundred TW laser facility.This micro-size ultra-short pulsed neutron source has the potential to improve the energy resolution of a fast neutron absorption spectrum dozens of times to,for example,approximately 100 eV at 1.65 MeV,which could be of benefit for high-quality fast neutron imaging and deep understanding of the theoretical model of neutron physics.展开更多
Supersonic gas jets generated via a conical nozzle are widely applied in the laser wakefield acceleration of electrons.The stability of the gas jet is critical to the electron injection and the reproducibility of the ...Supersonic gas jets generated via a conical nozzle are widely applied in the laser wakefield acceleration of electrons.The stability of the gas jet is critical to the electron injection and the reproducibility of the wakefield acceleration.Here we discussed the role of the stilling chamber in a modified converging-diverging nozzle to dissipate the turbulence and to stabilize the gas jets.By the fluid dynamics simulations and the Mach-Zehnder interferometer measurements,the instability originating from the nonlinear turbulence is studied and the mechanism to suppress the instability is proposed.Both the numerical and experimental results prove that the carefully designed nozzle with a stilling chamber is able to reduce the perturbation by more than 10% compared with a simple-conical nozzle.展开更多
Laser wakefield accelerators(LWFAs)offer acceleration gradients up to 1000 times higher than those of conventional radio-frequency accelerators,offering a pathway to significantly more compact and cost-effective accel...Laser wakefield accelerators(LWFAs)offer acceleration gradients up to 1000 times higher than those of conventional radio-frequency accelerators,offering a pathway to significantly more compact and cost-effective accelerator systems.This breakthrough opens up new possibilities for laboratory-scale light sources.All-optical inverse Compton scattering(AOCS)sources driven by LWFAs produce high-brightness,quasimonochromatic X rays with micrometer-scale source sizes,delivering the spatial coherence and resolution required for X-ray phase-contrast imaging(XPCI).These features position AOCS X-ray sources as promising tools for applications in biology,medicine,physics,and materials science.However,previous AOCS-based imaging studies have primarily focused on X-ray absorption imaging.In this work,we report successful experimental demonstrations of edge-enhanced in-line XPCI using energy-tunable,quasi-monochromatic AOCS X rays.With a spatial resolution of~20μm,our results clearly show the potential of high-resolution,AOCS-based XPCI applications.展开更多
Real-time single-shot measurement of the femtosecond electron beam duration in laser wakefield accelerators is discussed for both experimental design and theoretical analysis that combines polarimetry and interferomet...Real-time single-shot measurement of the femtosecond electron beam duration in laser wakefield accelerators is discussed for both experimental design and theoretical analysis that combines polarimetry and interferometry.The probe pulse polarization is rotated by the azimuthal magnetic field of the electron beam and then introduced into a Michelson-type interferometer for self-interference. The electron beam duration is obtained from the region size of the interference fringes, which is independent of the pulse width of the probe laser. Using a larger magnification system or incident angle, the measurement resolution can be less than 1 fs.展开更多
基金supported by Science and Technology Major Project of Hubei Province in China(No.2021AFB001)。
文摘In laser wakefield acceleration,injecting an external electron beam at a certain energy is a promising approach for achieving a high-quality electron beam with low energy spread and low emittance.In this paper,the process of laser wakefield acceleration with an external injection at 10 pC has been studied in simulations.A Bayesian optimization method is used to optimize the key laser and plasma parameters so that the electron beam is accelerated to the expected energy with a small emittance and energy spread growth.The effect of the rising edge of the plasma on the transverse properties of the electron beam is simulated and optimized in order to ensure that the external electron beam is injected into the plasma without significant emittance growth.Finally,a high-quality electron beam with an energy of 1.5 GeV,a normalized transverse emittance of 0.5 mm·mrad and a relative energy spread of 0.5%at 10 pC is obtained.
基金Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant Nos 2013CBA01504the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11475260,11374209 and 11375265
文摘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.
基金This work was supported by the Programs for the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.11975316,11775312,12005305 and 61905287)the Continue Basic Scientific Research Project(Nos.WDJC-2019-02 and BJ20002501).
文摘The supersonic gas-jet target is an important experimental target for laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA),which has great potential for driving novel radiation sources such as betatron radiation and Compton scattering gamma rays.According to different electron acceleration requirements,it is necessary to provide specific supersonic gas jets with different density profiles to generate electron beams with high quality and high repetition rates.In this study,the interference images and density profiles of different gas-jet targets were obtained through a modified Nomarski interference diagnosis system.The relationships between the gas density and back pressure,nozzle structure,and other key parameters were studied.Targets with different characteristics are conducive to meeting the various requirements of LWFA.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11804348,11775056,11975154,12225505,and 12405281)the Science Challenge(Project No.TZ2018005)+2 种基金supported by the Shanghai Pujiang Program(Grant No.23PJ1414600)the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.XDB0890203)supported by the Accelerator Technology Helmholtz Infrastructure consortium ATHENA.
文摘The effects of initial spin orientation on the final electron beam polarization in laser wakefield acceleration in a pre-polarized plasma are investigated theoretically and numerically.From the results of variation of the initial spin direction,the spin dynamics of the electron beam are found to depend on the self-injection mechanism.The effects of wakefields and laser fields are studied using test particle dynamics and particle-in-cell simulations based on the Thomas-Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equation.Compared with transverse injection,longitudinal injection is found to be preferable for obtaining a highly polarized electron beam.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12005297,12175309,12175310,11975308,and 12275356)the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.XDA25050200)+3 种基金the Research Project of NUDT(Grant No.ZK21-12)the Key Laboratory Foundation of Laser Plasma of Ministry of Educationthe financial support from the NUDT Young Innovator Awards(Grant No.20190102)Outstanding Young Talents。
文摘The electron injection and acceleration driven by a few-cycle laser with a sharp vacuum-plasma boundary have been investigated through three-dimensional(3D)particle-in-cell simulations.It is found that an isotropic boundary impact injection(BII)first occurs at the vacuum-plasma boundary,and then carrier-envelope-phase(CEP)shift causes the transverse oscillation of the plasma bubble,resulting in a periodic electron self-injection(SI)in the laser polarization direction.It shows that the electron charge of the BII only accounts for a small part of the total charge,and the CEP can effectively tune the quality of the injected electron beam.The dependences of laser intensity and electron density on the total charge and the ratio of BII charge to the total charge are studied.The results are beneficial to electron acceleration and its applications,such as betatron radiation source.
基金supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China(No.2018YFA0404802)National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.11875319)+2 种基金the Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Program(No.2020RC4020)Innovation Project of IHEP(Nos.542017IHEPZZBS11820,542018IHEPZZBS12427)the CAS Center for Excellence in Particle Physics(CCEPP),the Meritocracy Research Funds of China West Normal University(No.17YC504)。
文摘Recent experimental data for anomalous magnetic moments strongly indicates the existence of new physics beyond the Standard Model.Energetic μ^(+) bunches are relevant to μ^(+) rare decay,spin rotation,resonance and relaxation(μSR)technology,future muon colliders,and neutrino factories.In this paper,we propose prompt μ^(+) acceleration in a nonlinear toroidal wakefield driven by a shaped steep-rising-front Laguerre–Gaussian(LG)laser pulse.An analytical model is described,which shows that a μ^(+) beam can be focused by an electron cylinder at the centerline of a toroidal bubble and accelerated by the front part of the longitudinal wakefield.A shaped LG laser with a short rise time can push plasma electrons,generating a higher-density electron sheath at the front of the bubble,which can enhance the acceleration field.The acceleration field driven by the shaped steep-rising-front LG laser pulse is about four times greater than that driven by a normal LG laser pulse.Our simulation results show that a 300 MeV μ^(+) bunch can be accelerated to 2 GeV and its transverse size is focused from an initial value of w_(0)=5μm to w=2μm in the toroidal bubble driven by the shaped steep-rising-front LG laser pulse with a normalized amplitude of a=22.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11127901,11425418,and 61221064)the National Basic Research Program of China(Grant No.2011CB808100)the Science and Technology Talent Project of Shanghai City,China(Grant Nos.12XD1405200 and 12ZR1451700)
文摘Laser wakefield accelerators（LWFAs） are compact accelerators which can produce femtosecond high-energy electron beams on a much smaller scale than the conventional radiofrequency accelerators. It is attributed to their high acceleration gradient which is about 3 orders of magnitude larger than the traditional ones. The past decade has witnessed the major breakthroughs and progress in developing the laser wakfield accelerators. To achieve the LWFAs suitable for applications,more and more attention has been paid to optimize the LWFAs for high-quality electron beams. A single-staged LWFA does not favor generating controllable electron beams beyond 1 Ge V since electron injection and acceleration are coupled and cannot be independently controlled. Staged LWFAs provide a promising route to overcome this disadvantage by decoupling injection from acceleration and thus the electron-beam quality as well as the stability can be greatly improved.This paper provides an overview of the physical conceptions of the LWFA, as well as the major breakthroughs and progress in developing LWFAs from single-stage to two-stage LWFAs.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.11921006 and 12175058)the Beijing Distinguished Young Scientist Program and National Grand Instrument Project (Grant No.SQ2019YFF01014400)+1 种基金the Beijing Municipal Science&Technology Commission,Administrative Commission of Zhongguancun Science Park (Grant No.Z231100006023003)in part funded by United Kingdom EPSRC (Grant Nos.EP/G054950/1,EP/G056803/1,EP/G055165/1,and EP/M022463/1)。
文摘X-ray sources with tunable energy spectra have a wide range of applications in different scenarios due to their different penetration depths.However,existing x-ray sources face difficulties in terms of energy regulation.In this paper,we present a scheme for tuning the energy spectrum of a betatron x-ray generated from a relativistic electron bunch oscillating in a plasma wakefield.The center energy of the x-ray source can be tuned from several keV to several hundred keV by changing the plasma density,thereby extending the control range by an order of magnitude.At different central energies,the brightness of the betatron radiation is in the range of 3.7×10^(22)to 5.5×10^(22)photons/(0.1%BW·s·mm^(2)·mrad^(2))and the photon divergence angle is about 2 mrad.This high-brightness,energy-controlled betatron source could pave the way to a wide range of applications requiring photons of specific energy,such as phase-contrast imaging in medicine,non-destructive testing and material analysis in industry,and imaging in nuclear physics.
基金financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11664039, 11575150, 11964038 and 11875007)particularly grateful to CFSA at the University of Warwick for allowing us to use the EPOCH code (developed under UK EPSRC (Grant Nos. EP/G054940/1, EP/ G055165/1 and EP/G056803/1))。
文摘In this study, we investigate the generation of twin γ ray beams in the collision of an ultrahigh intensity laser pulse with a laser wakefield accelerated electron beam using a particle-in-cell simulation. We consider the composed target of a homogeneous underdense preplasma in front of an ultrathin solid foil. The electrons in the preplasma are trapped and accelerated by the wakefield. When the laser pulse is reflected by the thin solid foil, the wakefield accelerated electrons continue to move forward and pass through the foil almost without influence from the reflected laser pulse or foil. Consequently, two groups of γ ray flashes, with tunable time delay and energy, are generated by the wakefield accelerated electron beam interacting with the reflected laser pulse from the foil as well as another counter-propagating petawatt laser pulse behind the foil. Additionally, we study the dependence of the γ photon emission on the preplasma densities, driving laser polarization, and solid foil.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11991074,12225505 and12135009)。
文摘By using a high-intensity flying focus laser,the dephasingless[Phys.Rev.Lett.124134802(2020)]or phase-locked[Nat.Photon.14475(2020)]laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA)can be realized,which may overcome issues of laser diffraction,pump depletion,and electron dephasing which are always suffered in usual LWFA.The scheme thus has the potentiality to accelerate electrons to Te V energy in a single acceleration stage.However,the controlled electron injection has not been self-consistently included in such schemes.Only external injection was suggested in previous theoretical studies,which requires other accelerators and is relatively difficulty to operate.Here,we numerically study the actively controlled density transition injection in phase-locked LWFA to get appropriate density profiles for amount of electron injection.The study shows that compared with LWFA driven by lasers with fixed focus,a larger plasma density gradient is necessary.Electrons experience both transverse and longitudinal loss during acceleration due to the superluminal group velocity of the driver and the variation of the wakefield structure.Furthermore,the periodic deformation and fracture of the flying focus laser in the high-density plasma plateau make the final injected charge also depend on the beginning position of the density downramp.Our studies show a possible way for amount of electron injection in LWFA driven by flying focus lasers.
基金This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(2013CBA01500)the National Key Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Project(2012YQ120047)+1 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(11334013,11421064,11374210,and 11305185)the CAS Key Program(KGZD-EW-T05).
文摘Betatron radiation from laser wakefield accelerated electrons and X-rays scattered off a counter-propagating relativistic electron bunch arecollimated and hold the potential to extend the energy range to hard X-ray or gamma ray band. The peak brightness of these incoherent radiations could reach the level of the brightest synchrotron light sources in the world due to their femtosecond pulse duration and source sizedown to a few micrometers. In this article, the principle and properties of these radiation sources are briefly reviewed and compared. Then wepresent our recent progress in betatron radiation enhancement in the perspective of both photon energy and photon number. The enhancement istriggered by using a clustering gas target, arousing a second injection of a fiercely oscillating electron bunch with large charge or stimulating aresonantly enhanced oscillation of the ionization injected electrons. By adopting these methods, bright photon source with energy over 100 keVis generated which would greatly impact applications such as nuclear physics, diagnostic radiology, laboratory astrophysics and high-energydensity science.
基金supported by the National Grand Instrument Project No. SQ2019YFF01014400the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12375147, 12435011, 12075030)+2 种基金the Beijing Outstanding Young Scientist Project, Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences (YSBR-115)the Beijing Normal University Scientific Research Initiation Fund for Introducing Talents No. 310432104the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Peking University
文摘X-ray free-electron lasers(XFELs)can generate bright X-ray pulses with short durations and narrow bandwidths,leading to extensive applica-tions in many disciplines such as biology,materials science,and ultrafast science.Recently,there has been a growing demand for X-ray pulses with high photon energy,especially from developments in“diffraction-before-destruction”applications and in dynamic mesoscale materials science.Here,we propose utilizing the electron beams at XFELs to drive a meter-scale two-bunch plasma wakefield accelerator and double the energy of the accelerated beam in a compact and inexpensive way.Particle-in-cell simulations are performed to study the beam quality degradation under different beam loading scenarios and nonideal issues,and the results show that more than half of the accelerated beam can meet the requirements of XFELs.After its transport to the undulator,the accelerated beam can improve the photon energy to 22 keV by a factor of around four while maintaining the peak power,thus offering a promising pathway toward high-photon-energy XFELs.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.10902010 and 10975121)the Foundation of China Academy of Engineering Physics(CAEP)(Grant No.2009A0102003)the Foundation of Laboratory of Science and Technology on Plasma Physics,RCLF,CAEP(Grant No.9140C680305120C68252)
文摘Energy spectra, angular distributions, and temporal profiles of the photons produced by an all-optical Thomson scat- tering X-ray source are explored through numerical simulations based on the parameters of the SILEX-I laser system （800 nm, 30 fs, 300 TW） and the previous wakefield acceleration experimental results. The simulation results show that X-ray pulses with a duration of 30 fs and an emission angle of 50 mrad can be produced from such a source. Using the optimized electron parameters, X-ray pulses with better directivity and narrower energy spectra can be obtained. Besides the electron parameters, the laser parameters such as the wavelength, pulse duration, and spot size also affect the X-ray yield, the angular distribution, and the maximum photon energy, except the X-ray pulse duration which is slightly changed for the case of ultrafast laser-electron interaction.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.12005297,11975308,and 11775305)the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.XDA25050200)+2 种基金the Fund of Science Challenge Project(Grant No.TZ2018001)Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province,China(Grant No.2020JJ5651)the Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Laser Interaction with Matter(Grant No.SKLLIM1908)。
文摘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 the 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.
基金supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(grant nos.XDB0530000 and XDB0530100)National Natural Science Foundation of China(grant nos.11991071,12375241,12305152,and 11991073)+3 种基金Discipline Construction Foundation of“Double World-class Project,”and was funded in part by the National Science and Technology Major Project(grant no.2019-VII-0019-0161)C.J.and W.B.M.were partially supported by U.S.DoE grant DE-SC0010064:0011W.B.M.was also partially supported by U.S.NSF grant 2108970The simulation work is supported by Center of High Performance Computing,Tsinghua University.
文摘The emergence of multi-petawatt laser facilities is expected to push forward the maximum energy gain that can be achieved in a single stage of a laser wakefield acceleration(LWFA)to tens of giga-electron volts,which begs the question-is it likely to impact particle physics by providing a truly compact particle collider?Colliders have very stringent requirements on beam energy,acceleration efficiency,and beam quality.In this article,we propose an LWFA scheme that can for the first time simultaneously achieve hitherto unrealized acceleration efficiency from the laser to the electron beam of>20%and a sub-1%energy spread using a stepwise plasma structure and a nonlinearly chirped laser pulse.Three-dimensional high-fidelity simulations show that the nonlinear chirp can effectively mitigate the laser waveform distortion and lengthen the acceleration distance.This,combined with an interstage rephasing process in the stepwise plasma,can triple the beam energy gain compared to that in a uniform plasma for a fixed laser energy,thereby dramatically increasing the efficiency.A dynamic beam loading effect can almost perfectly cancel the energy chirp that arises during the acceleration,leading to the sub-percent energy spread.This scheme is highly scalable and can be applied to petawatt LWFA scenarios.Scaling laws are obtained,which suggest that electron beams with parameters relevant for a Higgs factory could be reached with the proposed high-efficiency,low-energy-spread scheme.
基金supported by the China Acdamy of Engineering Physics Project (No. 2006Z0202)the StateKey Program of the National Natural Science of China(No. 10535030)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 10975121)
文摘An electron beam is obtained using laser wakefield electron accelerator, and converted into a γ-ray source after undergoing bremsstrahlung radiation in a dense material. A quasi-monoenergetic structure is observed when the length of the plasma channel was modified. The structure has a 58-MeV peak energy, 15- mrad （full-width at half-maximum） divergence angle, and 340-pC charge. The γ-ray source generated by this high-quality electron beam is brighter and has higher spatial and temporal resolutions than other conventional sources. A γ-ray radiography demonstrational experiment is performed. Pictures of a ball with different layers made of different materials are taken. The results show a clear structure and density resolution.
基金supported by the Science Challenge Project(No.TZ2018005)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.11875191,11991073,11890710,and 11721404)+2 种基金the Strategic Priority Research Program of the CAS(Nos.XDB1602 and XDA01020304)the Key Program of CAS(Nos.XDA01020304 and XDB17030500)the National Key R&D Program of China(No.2017YFA0403301)。
文摘A pulsed fast neutron source is critical for applications of fast neutron resonance radiography and fast neutron absorption spectroscopy.However,due to the large transversal source size(of the order of mm)and long pulse duration(of the order of ns)of traditional pulsed fast neutron sources,it is difficult to realize high-contrast neutron imaging with high spatial resolution and a fine absorption spectrum.Here,we experimentally present a micro-size ultra-short pulsed neutron source by a table-top laser-plasma wakefield electron accelerator driving a photofission reaction in a thin metal converter.A fast neutron source with source size of approximately 500μm and duration of approximately 36 ps has been driven by a tens of MeV,collimated,micro-size electron beam via a hundred TW laser facility.This micro-size ultra-short pulsed neutron source has the potential to improve the energy resolution of a fast neutron absorption spectrum dozens of times to,for example,approximately 100 eV at 1.65 MeV,which could be of benefit for high-quality fast neutron imaging and deep understanding of the theoretical model of neutron physics.
基金funded by the JST-MIRAI program,grant No.JPMJMI17A1.
文摘Supersonic gas jets generated via a conical nozzle are widely applied in the laser wakefield acceleration of electrons.The stability of the gas jet is critical to the electron injection and the reproducibility of the wakefield acceleration.Here we discussed the role of the stilling chamber in a modified converging-diverging nozzle to dissipate the turbulence and to stabilize the gas jets.By the fluid dynamics simulations and the Mach-Zehnder interferometer measurements,the instability originating from the nonlinear turbulence is studied and the mechanism to suppress the instability is proposed.Both the numerical and experimental results prove that the carefully designed nozzle with a stilling chamber is able to reduce the perturbation by more than 10% compared with a simple-conical nozzle.
基金supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.XDB0530000)the Discipline Construction Foundation of“Double World-class Project”.
文摘Laser wakefield accelerators(LWFAs)offer acceleration gradients up to 1000 times higher than those of conventional radio-frequency accelerators,offering a pathway to significantly more compact and cost-effective accelerator systems.This breakthrough opens up new possibilities for laboratory-scale light sources.All-optical inverse Compton scattering(AOCS)sources driven by LWFAs produce high-brightness,quasimonochromatic X rays with micrometer-scale source sizes,delivering the spatial coherence and resolution required for X-ray phase-contrast imaging(XPCI).These features position AOCS X-ray sources as promising tools for applications in biology,medicine,physics,and materials science.However,previous AOCS-based imaging studies have primarily focused on X-ray absorption imaging.In this work,we report successful experimental demonstrations of edge-enhanced in-line XPCI using energy-tunable,quasi-monochromatic AOCS X rays.With a spatial resolution of~20μm,our results clearly show the potential of high-resolution,AOCS-based XPCI applications.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.11127901,11425418,11505263,and 61521093)the Strategic Priority Research Program(B)(No.XDB16)+2 种基金Shanghai Sailing Program(Nos.17YF1421100 and 18YF1426000)the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CASthe State Key Laboratory Program of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology
文摘Real-time single-shot measurement of the femtosecond electron beam duration in laser wakefield accelerators is discussed for both experimental design and theoretical analysis that combines polarimetry and interferometry.The probe pulse polarization is rotated by the azimuthal magnetic field of the electron beam and then introduced into a Michelson-type interferometer for self-interference. The electron beam duration is obtained from the region size of the interference fringes, which is independent of the pulse width of the probe laser. Using a larger magnification system or incident angle, the measurement resolution can be less than 1 fs.
