Application of high-current DLA-electrons for interdisciplinary research with lasers

durch Olga Rosmej (Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main)

Dienstag 30.11.2021, 16:15 → 17:00 Europe/Berlin

Experiments on interaction of ~ 1019 W/cm2 sub-ps laser pulses with pre-ionized low density foams at PHELIX, GSI demonstrated generation of high-current beams of direct laser accelerated (DLA) electrons with an effective temperature up to 10× higher than the ponderomotive potential and a charge of super-ponderomotive electrons (> 7.5 MeV) of 4 nC per Joule focused laser energy [1, 2]. The DLA process appears to be very robust, it doesn’t require high laser contrast and high laser pointing stability and can be used to generate ultra-bright laser-driven sources of particles and photons of tens of MeV energy already at moderate relativistic laser intensities. 

In the talk, a universal character of foam targets for application in different research fields will be discussed. Foams can be used for generation of bright betatron radiation, for ultra-high dose-rate experiments using DLA-electrons (FLASH effect in radio-oncology), and, in combination with µm-thin or mm-thick high-Z convertor foils, for generation of protons, positrons, gamma-rays and neutrons with the world’s highest conversion efficiency and without any changes in the laser system. 

3D PIC simulations of the DLA-performance in a long-scale plasma of near critical density made for PHELIX-upgrade (0.7 ps, 200J (focused), 8×1019 W/cm2) and PEARL (30 fs, 15 J, 1021 W/cm2) demonstrated that our scheme can be successfully used for both ps and fs laser pulses in a wide range of relativistic intensities.  All these make high-current DLA electrons generated in the pre-ionized low density foams an excellent tool for interdisciplinary research with lasers.

 

[1] O N Rosmej et al 2019, Interaction of relativistically intense laser pulses with long-scale NCD plasmas for optimisation of laser based sources of MeV electrons and gamma-rays, New J. Phys. 21, 043044  https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab1047

[2] O.N. Rosmej et al 2020, High-current laser-driven beams of relativistic electrons for high energy density research, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 62, 115024 (15pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6587/abb24e

[3] X. F. Shen et al 2021, Bright betatron x-rays generation from picosecond laser interactions with long-scale near critical density plasmas, Appl. Phys. Lett. 118, 134102 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0042997

[4] O. N. Rosmej et al 2021, Bright betatron radiation from direct laser-accelerated electrons at moderate relativistic laser intensity, Matter Radiat. Extremes 6, 048401 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0042315

 

Zoom Meeting-ID: 966 2996 3798

Kenncode: 130302

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