Laser Wakefield Acceleration at KHz Repetition Rate

KHz 重复频率下的激光尾场加速

• 批准号: 1535628
• 负责人: Karl Krushelnick
• 金额: $ 49万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1535628&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Laser; Wakefield; Acceleration; KHz; Repetition

A very powerful laser can be used to accelerate electrons to high energies by interacting with a state of matter known as a plasma, an ionized gas of charged particles. The laser achieves this by creating waves in the plasma, like a boat pushing through water, on which the electrons can surf and be accelerated to high energies. In this specific project the pulse of laser light will be controlled and the structure of these waves mapped out in time and space, both with unprecedented precision. These techniques should help the development of compact particle accelerators. Accelerators represent a $3B per year market, but their overall impact is even greater since they find use in everything from cancer therapy to imaging stresses in aircraft wings. Thus, the development of compact and cheap accelerators is likely to have a significant impact both economically and technologically.The research project will use the high repetition rate of the relativistic intensity (~10^19 W per square cm, 35 fs) laser, "Lambda-cubed", located on campus at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor to enable unique measurements of laser propagation and wakefield formation, to exert unprecedented control of laser wakefield acceleration, and to generate up to 10 MeV, few fs duration electron beams at 0.5 kHz. Stable, high quality relativistic electron beams at up to 10 MeV at 0.5 kHz repetition rate using the Lambda-cubed laser will be generated by making use of advances in pulse compression and feedback control made at the University of Michigan. A 5 fs pulse will be used as an ultrafast 4D probe of the plasma wakefield structure, allowing unique tomographic characterization of the accelerator structure.

一个非常强大的激光可以用来加速电子到高能量，通过与一种被称为等离子体的物质状态相互作用，一种带电粒子的电离气体。激光通过在等离子体中产生波来实现这一目标，就像一艘船在水中推进一样，电子可以在上面冲浪并加速到高能量。在这个特定的项目中，激光脉冲将被控制，这些波的结构将在时间和空间上被绘制出来，两者都具有前所未有的精度。这些技术将有助于小型粒子加速器的发展。加速器代表着每年30亿美元的市场，但它们的整体影响更大，因为它们可以用于从癌症治疗到机翼成像应力的所有领域。因此，开发紧凑廉价的加速器很可能在经济和技术上产生重大影响。该研究项目将利用相对论强度的高重复率（~10^19 W/cm 2，35 fs）激光器，“Lambda立方”，位于密歇根大学-安阿伯校区，能够对激光传播和韦克菲尔德形成进行独特的测量，对激光韦克菲尔德加速进行前所未有的控制，并在0.5 kHz下产生高达10 MeV、持续时间为几fs的电子束。利用密歇根大学在脉冲压缩和反馈控制方面取得的进展，将利用λ立方激光器产生重复率为0.5 kHz、能量高达10 MeV的稳定、高质量相对论电子束。5 fs脉冲将被用作等离子体韦克菲尔德结构的超快4D探头，允许对加速器结构进行独特的层析表征。