Simulation Prediction and Experiment Setup of Vacuum Laser Acceleration at Brookhaven National Lab-Accelerator Test Facility

TL;DR

This paper details a pre-experiment plan and simulation predictions for Vacuum Laser Acceleration at Brookhaven, aiming to demonstrate net energy gain in electrons using intense laser beams under current experimental conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel VLA theory and provides simulation-based predictions supporting a first proof-of-principle experiment at ATF-BNL.

Findings

Electrons with 15MeV initial energy can gain net energy from CO2 laser.

Energy spread differences are observable with existing diagnostics.

Energy spread increases with laser intensity.

Abstract

This paper presents the pre-experiment plan and prediction of the first stage of Vacuum Laser Acceleration (VLA) collaborating by UCLA, Fudan University and ATF-BNL. This first stage experiment is a Proof-of-Principle to support our previously posted novel VLA theory. Simulations show that based on ATF's current experimental conditions, the electron beam with initial energy of 15MeV can get net energy gain from intense CO2 laser beam. The difference of electron beam energy spread is observable by ATF beam line diagnostics system. Further this energy spread expansion effect increases along with the laser intensity increasing. The proposal has been approved by ATF committee and experiment will be the next project.