Enhancement of electron energy to multi-GeV regime by a dual-stage laser-wakefield accelerator pumped by petawatt laser pulses

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a significant advancement in laser wakefield acceleration by achieving over 3 GeV electron energies using a dual-stage scheme driven by a 1-PW laser, supported by simulations.

Contribution

The study introduces a dual-stage laser wakefield acceleration method powered by a petawatt laser, enabling multi-GeV electron beams in a compact setup.

Findings

Achieved over 3 GeV electron energies with a single PW laser pulse.

Validated the results with 3D particle-in-cell simulations.

Showed the effectiveness of dual-stage acceleration in increasing electron energy.

Abstract

Laser wakefield acceleration offers the promise of a compact electron accelerator for generating a multi-GeV electron beam using the huge field gradient induced by an intense laser pulse, compared to conventional rf accelerators. However, the energy and quality of the electron beam from the laser wakefield accelerator have been limited by the power of the driving laser pulses and interaction properties in the target medium. Recent progress in laser technology has resulted in the realization of a petawatt (PW) femtosecond laser, which offers new capabilities for research on laser wakefield acceleration. Here, we present a significant increase in laser-driven electron energy to the multi-GeV level by utilizing a 30-fs, 1-PW laser system. In particular, a dual-stage laser wakefield acceleration scheme (injector and accelerator scheme) was applied to boost electron energies to over 3 GeV with a single PW laser pulse. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations corroborate the multi-GeV electron generation from the dual-stage laser wakefield accelerator driven by PW laser pulses.