Enhanced betatron radiation by steering a laser-driven plasma wakefield with a tilted shock front

Yu, Changhai and Liu, Jiansheng and Wang, Wentao and Li, Wentao and Qi, Rong and Zhang, Zhijun and Qin, Zhiyong and Liu, Jiaqi and Fang, Ming and Feng, Ke and Wu, Ying and Ke, Lintong and Chen, Yu and Wang, Cheng and Xu, Yi and Leng, Yuxin and Xia, Changquan and Li, Ruxin and Xu, Zhizhan (2018) Enhanced betatron radiation by steering a laser-driven plasma wakefield with a tilted shock front. Applied Physics Letters, 112 (13). 133503. ISSN 0003-6951 (https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5019406)

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Abstract

We have experimentally realized a scheme to enhance betatron radiation by manipulating transverse oscillation of electrons in a laser-driven plasma wakefield with a tilted shock front (TSF). Very brilliant betatron x-rays have been produced with significant enhancement both in photon yield and peak energy but almost maintain the e-beam energy spread and charge. Particle-in-cell simulations indicate that the accelerated electron beam (e beam) can acquire a very large transverse oscillation amplitude with an increase in more than 10-fold, after being steered into the deflected wakefield due to the refraction of the driving laser at the TSF. Spectral broadening of betatron radiation can be suppressed owing to the small variation in the peak energy of the low-energy-spread e beam in a plasma wiggler regime. It is demonstrated that the e-beam generation, refracting, and wiggling can act as a whole to realize the concurrence of monoenergetic e beams and bright x-rays in a compact laser-wakefield accelerator.

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