Novel gas target for Laser Wakefield Accelerators

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new gas target design for laser wakefield accelerators that offers tunable density and length with a uniform profile, validated through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel gas target combining a gas cell and slit nozzle, enabling precise control of density and length for laser wakefield experiments.

Findings

Achieved tunable gas density from 10^16 to 10^19 atoms/cm^3.

Demonstrated uniform gas profile along the target length.

Validated gas distribution with interferometry and CFD simulations.

Abstract

A novel gas target for interactions between high power lasers and gaseous medium, especially for laser wakefield accelerators, has been designed, manufactured and characterized. The gas target has been designed to provide a uniform density profile along the central gas cell axis by combining a gas cell and slit nozzle. The gas density can be tuned from 10^16 atoms/cm^3 to 10^19 atoms/cm^3 and the gas target length can be varied from 0 to 10 cm, both changes can be made simultaneously while keeping the flat-top gas profile. The gas distributions inside the gas cell have been measured using interferometry and validated using computational fluid dynamics.