Recent studies on single-shot diagnostics for plasma accelerators at SPARC_LAB

TL;DR

This paper discusses two innovative single-shot diagnostic techniques developed at SPARC_LAB for analyzing plasma-accelerated electron beams, aiming to address shot-to-shot instabilities in plasma wakefield acceleration.

Contribution

Introduction of two novel single-shot diagnostics, EOS and OTR, for real-time analysis of laser-plasma interactions and electron beam properties at SPARC_LAB.

Findings

EOS effectively probes laser-solid interactions in a single shot.

OTR provides single-shot measurements of electron beam transverse emittance.

Diagnostics enhance understanding of plasma acceleration mechanisms.

Abstract

Plasma wakefield acceleration is the most promising acceleration technique for compact and cheap accelerators, thanks to the high accelerating gradients achievable. Nevertheless, this approach still suffers of shot-to-shot instabilities, mostly related to experimental parameters fluctuations. Therefore, the use of single shot diagnostics is needed to properly understand the acceleration mechanism. In this work, we present two diagnostics to probe electron beams from laser-plasma interactions, one relying on Electro Optical Sampling (EOS) for laser-solid matter interactions, the other one based on Optical Transition Radiation (OTR) for single shot measurements of the transverse emittance of plasma accelerated electron beams, both developed at the SPARC_LAB Test Facility.