Development of the high-repetition-rate laser wakefield electron acceleration driven by ultrafast laser pulses with a moderate peak power

Ming-Wei Lin^1,2*

¹Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
²Department of Physics, National Central University, Jhongli 32001, Taiwan

* Presenter:Ming-Wei Lin, email:mwlin@mx.nthu.edu.tw

Raising the repetition rate of ultrafast laser pulses for driving the laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) can straightforwardly increase the average current of accelerated electrons and subsequently generate a high radiation flux desired in advanced X-ray radiography. Instead of using multi-TW laser pulses, the bottleneck of current ultrafast laser technology for producing few-tens-mJ pulses at kHz-level frequencies motivates the development of LWFA methods that can be conducted with a moderate laser peak power approaching the level < 1 TW. With the use of thin, high-density gas targets, the principles of realizing the LWFA driven by pulses with a few-TW or even a sub-TW peak power will be introduced, including a comprehensive review to the recent simulations and experimental results in this field. Progress about the development of a diode-pumped, ytterbium-based ultrafast laser system expected to drive the sub-TW LWFA will be presented next. Lastly, results of LWFA experiments, when 800-nm pulses of a few-TW peak power are directed into thin, transient flow of nitrogen gas jets, will be reported. This scheme exhibits a high potential for generating electrons with tens of MeV energies under a satisfactory stability, which is the prerequisite for developing LWFA into a useful source in future radiation applications.

Keywords: laser wake field acceleration, plasma particle-in-cell simulation