Quasi-monoenergetic laser-plasma acceleration of electrons to 2 GeV

Laser-plasma accelerators of only a centimetre’s length have produced nearly monoenergetic electron bunches with energy as high as 1 GeV. Scaling these compact accelerators to multi-gigaelectronvolt energy would open the prospect of building X-ray free-electron lasers and linear colliders hundreds of times smaller than conventional facilities, but the 1 GeV barrier has so far proven insurmountable. Here, by applying new petawatt laser technology, we produce electron bunches with a spectrum prominently peaked at 2 GeV with only a few per cent energy spread and unprecedented sub-milliradian divergence. Petawatt pulses inject ambient plasma electrons into the laser-driven accelerator at much lower density than…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: PHY-0936283
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-FC52-08NA28512, FG02-07ER54945, FC52-08NA28512, DE-FG02-, DE-FG02-07ER54945, DE-FG02
• NN
  National Nuclear Security Administration

  Award: DE-FC52-08NA28512