Louise Willingale

SSAP symposium, 27th February 2020

Direct Laser Acceleration of electrons for bright,

directional radiation sources

This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy / NNSA under Award Number DE-NA0003944.
 Acknowledgements
Hongmei Tang, Andrew McKelvey,
Paul T Campbell, Brandon K Russell,
Louise Willingale

Amina Hussein

Jessica Shaw, Phillip Nilson

Hui Chen, Félicie Albert

Alexey Arefiev

This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy /

NNSA under Award Number DE-NA0003944.
 Motivation for electron beam acceleration experiments:
Bright x-ray and secondary radiation sources
Laser Wakefield Accelerator (LWFA) x-ray sources Significant applications as backlighting sources
are as bright as 3rd generation light sources

Modified synchrotron-like
(i.e. broadband)

S Kneip, et al, HEDP, 8, 133 (2012) F Albert, et al, Nuclear Fusion, 59, 032003 (2019)
Our previous NLUF OMEGA EP campaigns have studied …
Channel formation Direct Laser Acceleration of electrons

L Willingale, et al, PRL, 106, 105002 (2011); AE Hussein, et al, in prep for NJP (2020);
L Willingale, et al, IEEE, 39, 2616 (2011) AE Hussein, et al, in prep for PoP (2020)

Surface wave formation Shock acceleration of ions

5
C6+
4
C5+
3
2
1

5 6 7 8 9 10
Ion KE (MeV)
L Willingale, et al, NJP, 15 025023 (2013) P Kordell, et al, in prep (2020)
 Direct Laser Acceleration

In the presence if external EM fields (i.e. in a

plasma):

py [mec]
A Pukhov, et al, PoP, 6, 2847 (1999);
SPD Mangles, et al, PRL, 94, 245001 (2005).

Electrons can move off to gain energy.

Longitudinal motion allows the electron to stay in phase with the wave for longer, leading to energy enhancement.
 Direct Laser Acceleration (DLA) or parametric amplification

The laser is able to transfer energy directly to the electrons in the presence of external
electromagnetic fields.

A Pukhov, et al, PoP, 5, 1880 (1998)

B-loop Channel quasi-static magnetic
Betatron or electric fields A Pukhov et al, PoP, 6, 2847 (1999)

Small perturbations or counter- J Meyer-ter-Vehn & ZM Sheng, PoP, 6, 2847 (1999)

Stochastic propagating pulses (Raman ZM Sheng, et al., PRL, 88, 055004 (2002)

backscatter)

Laser beam strongly modulates electron

Parametric amplification
oscillation across the channel
– causes parametric amplification of the oscillations
– enhances electron energy gain AV Arefiev, et al, PRL, 108, 145004 (2012)
APL Robinson, et al, PRL, 111, 065002 (2013)
 Previous EP campaigns

A plasma plume, generated

using a nanosecond
interaction was the main
underdense target

AE Hussein, et al, Optimizing Direct Laser Acceleration and the relative importance of
channel fields, in preparation for New Journal of Physics (2020);
 Previous EP campaigns

5-shot average for 0.055 nc

Experiment

PIC Simulation

AE Hussein, et al, Optimizing Direct Laser Acceleration and the relative importance of
channel fields, in preparation for New Journal of Physics (2020);
 Previous EP campaigns

AE Hussein, et al, Optimizing Direct Laser Acceleration and the relative importance of
channel fields, in preparation for New Journal of Physics (2020);
 Previous EP campaigns

AE Hussein, et al, Optimizing Direct Laser Acceleration and the relative importance of
channel fields, in preparation for New Journal of Physics (2020);
 Previous EP campaigns

AE Hussein, et al, Optimizing Direct Laser Acceleration and the relative importance of
channel fields, in preparation for New Journal of Physics (2020);
 Previous EP campaigns

AE Hussein, et al, Optimizing Direct Laser Acceleration and the relative importance of
channel fields, in preparation for New Journal of Physics (2020);
 Previous EP campaigns

AE Hussein, et al, Optimizing Direct Laser Acceleration and the relative importance of
channel fields, in preparation for New Journal of Physics (2020);
 OMEGA EP experimental setup
To EPPS
To NTA
(RCF stack for proton
radiography)
Proton probe package

BL1 (SL)
The recently commissioned
gas-jet target provides Gas jet nozzle
shallower density gradients M5-4.0
and easier to control target
density conditions
Both beams ran at best
BL2 (BL) compression (BC)
Full aperture
 Electron spectra density dependence
Laser axis Transverse
EPPS2 spectra EPPS1 spectra

246J 0.064n 246J 0.064n

13 c c
10 12
10
493J 0.064n 493J 0.064n
c c

500J 0.029n 500J 0.029n

c c

12
10 242J 0.010n 242J 0.010n
c c

11
244J 0.007n 10 244J 0.007n
c c

c*exp(E)
Number/MeV/Sr

Number/MeV/Sr
11
10

10
10
10
10

9 9
10 10
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 2 4 6 8 10

Energy (MeV) Energy (MeV)

 Proton radiography of the interaction
Decreasing gas pressure / target density

~4 mm

nozzle

Reducing the target density allowed a better channel to form before filamentation,
likely enhancing the electron acceleration.
 Direct Laser Acceleration of electrons for bright, directional
radiation sources SSAP symposium, 27 February 2020 th

• We are performing experiments to study

the effects of target density, target length,
laser pulse duration and focusing on the
• Channel formation
• Electron acceleration
• We are performing 2D and 3D particle-
in-cell simulations to investigate the This project has provided funding to support:
• Louise Willingale, Assistant Professor
physics of the electron acceleration •
•
Alexey Arefiev, Associate Professor
Hongmei Tang, GSRA (Poster at SSAP)
• Andrew McKelvey, postdoc

Publications:
AE Hussein, et al, Optimizing Direct Laser Acceleration and the relative importance of channel fields, in preparation for New Journal of Physics (2020);
AE Hussein, et al, The dynamic role of magnetic fields in Direct Laser Acceleration, in preparation for Physics of Plasmas (2020)

This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy / NNSA under Award Number DE-NA0003944.