Shock-front injector for high-quality laser-plasma acceleration

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 May 3;110(18):185006. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.185006. Epub 2013 May 2.

Abstract

We report the generation of stable and tunable electron bunches with very low absolute energy spread (ΔE ≈ 5 MeV) accelerated in laser wakefields via injection and trapping at a sharp downward density jump produced by a shock front in a supersonic gas flow. The peak of the highly stable and reproducible electron energy spectrum was tuned over more than 1 order of magnitude, containing a charge of 1-100 pC and a charge per energy interval of more than 10 pC/MeV. Laser-plasma electron acceleration with Ti:sapphire lasers using this novel injection mechanism provides high-quality electron bunches tailored for applications.