Quasi-monoenergetic electron beams from laser plasma acceleration using nitrogen gas jet

TL;DR

This paper reports on the experimental generation of stable, quasi-monoenergetic electron beams using laser plasma acceleration with nitrogen gas jets, advancing understanding and control of ionization injection and wakefield acceleration.

Contribution

It demonstrates stable, well-collimated quasi-monoenergetic electron beams from nitrogen gas jets at specific plasma densities, providing insights for practical laser wakefield accelerators.

Findings

Electron beams with ~25 MeV energy and 30 pC charge were generated.

The electron beam divergence was approximately 10 mrad.

Stable, collimated beams were achieved at optimal plasma density.

Abstract

An experimental investigation on laser plasma acceleration of electrons has been carried out using 3 TW, 45 fs duration titanium sapphire laser pulse interaction with nitrogen gas jet at intensity of 2x10^18 W/cm^2. We have observed stable generation of well collimated electron beam with divergence and pointing variation ~ 10 mrad from the nitrogen gas jet plasma at an optimum plasma density around 3x10^19 cm^-3. The energy spectrum of the electron beam was quasi-monoenergetic with average peak energy and charge around 25 MeV and 30 pC respectively. The results will be useful for better understanding and control of ionization injection and laser wakefield acceleration of electrons in high-Z gases and also to develop practical laser wakefield accelerators for various applications including injectors for high energy accelerators.