Dynamics of electron acceleration in laser-driven wakefields: Acceleration limits and asymmetric plasma waves

The experiments presented in this thesis study several aspects of electron acceleration in a laser-driven plasma wave. High-intensity lasers can efficiently drive a plasma wave that sustains electric fields on the order of 100 GV/m. Electrons that are trapped in this plasma wave can be accelerated to GeV-scale energies. As the accelerating fields in this scheme are 3 − 4 orders of magnitude higher than in conventional radio-frequency accelerators, the necessary acceleration distance can be reduced by the same factor, turning laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA) into a promising compact, and potentially cheaper, alternative. However, laser-accelerated electron bunches have not yet reached the parameter standards of conventional accelerators. This work will help to gain better insight into the acceleration process and to optimize the electron bunch properties. The 25 fs, 1.8 J-pulses of the ATLAS laser at the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics were focused into a steady-state flow gas cell. This very reproducible and turbulencefree gas target allows for stable acceleration of electron bunches. Thus the sensitivity of electron parameters to subtle changes of the experimental setup could be determined with meaningful statistics. At optimized experimental parameters, electron bunches of ≈ 50 pC total charge were accelerated to energies up to 450 MeV with a divergence of ≈ 2 mrad FWHM. As, in a new design of the gas cell, its length can be varied from 2 to 14 mm, the electron bunch energy could be evaluated after different acceleration distances, at two different electron densities. From this evolution important acceleration parameters could be extracted. At an electron density of 6.43 · 1018 cm−3 the maximum electric field strength in the plasma wave was determined to be ≈ 160 GV/m. The length after which the relativistic electrons outrun the accelerating phase of the electric field and are decelerated again, the so-called dephasing length, was found to be 4.9 mm. Both values are in good agreement with theory. In addition, for our laser parameters, the factors that limit the acceleration distance at the different densities were identified. In the desirable low-density case, where in principle the highest energies can be reached, diffraction of the driver pulse stops the acceleration even before the dephasing length is reached. While plasma-length scans have been performed by other groups, e.g. [1], this is the first comprehensive scan that covers a wide range of lengths, even beyond the dephasing length, thus allowing for a reliable determination of acceleration parameters. Only with this knowledge the gas target length and electron density can be optimized for given laser parameters. In a second experiment, the influence of a tilted laser-pulse-intensity front on laser-wakefield acceleration was investigated. Such a tilt may be used to excite asymmetric plasma wakes, which can steer electron bunches away from the initial laser axis and thus allow for all-optical control of the electron-pointing direction, in our setup within an 8 mrad opening window. This also implies that the pulse front tilt (PFT) originating in the laser system needs to be carefully monitored if one wants to avoid this effect. We also discovered evidence of collective electron-betatron oscillations due to off-axis electron injection into the wakefield induced by a pulse-front tilt. This is a potential knob to tune the X-ray radiation wavelength, as the strength of PFT changes the off-axis distances for injection . All experimental results are support by full-scale three-dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations.