Enhancement of Betatron radiation from laser-driven Ar clustering gas

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a ten-fold increase in betatron x-ray emission using an argon clustering gas jet with a high-contrast laser, attributed to enhanced electron injection and wiggling in wake-field acceleration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of using argon clustering gas to significantly enhance betatron x-ray production in laser-driven plasma acceleration.

Findings

Photon flux > 2.4 keV reaches 2×10^8 photons/shot

Ten-fold increase in x-ray emission compared to non-clustering gas

Cluster presence enhances electron injection and wiggling amplitude

Abstract

Bright betatron x-ray has been generated using an Ar clustering gas jet target irradiated with a 3 TW ultra-high contrast laser. The measured emission flux with photon energy > 2.4 keV reaches 2\times10^8 photons/shot. It is ten-fold enhancement comparing to the emission flux produced by using gas target in the same laser parameters. Observation shows that much larger electron beam charge and divergence angle lead to this improvement. Simulations point to the existence of cluster in gas results in the increasing of electron injection and much larger wiggling amplitude in wake-field, enriching the betatron x-ray photons.