Description
Femtosecond laser-induced plasma filaments for beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration
M. Galletti1*, A. Biagioni1, M. Carillo1, L. Crincoli1, R. Demitra1,2, M. Ferrario1,
G. Parise1, R. Pompili1, F. Stocchi1,3, L. Verra1, F. Villa1, and A. Zigler1,4
1 INFN- Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati (RM), Italy
2 Sapienza, University of Rome 00161, Rome, Italy
3 University of Roma Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
4 Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
We have experimentally demonstrated beam-driven plasma-wakefield acceleration (PWFA) using laser-generated plasma filament as an acceleration stage. In our proof of principle recent experiments, we obtained an energy gain of approximately 8 MeV (corresponding accelerating gradient 260 MV/m in a 3-cm long plasma stage, together with a significantly enhanced stability (FIG. 1) of the acceleration process. The work demonstrates PWFA in plasma filaments generated by low-energy (10 mJ), self-guided femtosecond laser pulses in low-pressure nitrogen and were fully characterized, both experimentally and theoretically. This approach allows us to propose plasma filaments as a tuneable, high repetition-rate, low-energy dissipation plasma acceleration stage, with potential scalability of the interaction length to the meter scale. These features make the filament-based stage particularly attractive for future light sources facilities based on plasma accelerators, as EuPRAXIA and EuPRAXIA-related systems.
FIG.1 Waterfall of 100 consecutive spectra.
We believe this work could be of broad interest because it introduces, for the first time, a beam-driven plasma channel acceleration stage based on the nonlinear self-guided propagation of an ultrashort laser pulse, rather than externally confined or preformed plasma structures. The intrinsic tunability of the plasma stage length, together with high repetition-rate operation and low laser energy dissipation, makes this approach particularly well suited for the realization of plasma-based FEL user facilities, where stability, efficiency, and average flux are key requirements.