Efficient laser wakefield accelerator in pump depletion dominated bubble regime.

Area of Science:

• Plasma Physics
• Laser-driven Particle Acceleration

Background:

• Recent advancements in postcompression techniques have enabled the generation of few-cycle joule-class laser pulses.
• These pulses represent a significant leap in laser technology, reaching 100 TW-class power at a 10 Hz repetition rate.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the potential of wakefield acceleration driven by these advanced few-cycle joule-class laser pulses.
• To analyze the energy transfer efficiency and electron beam characteristics in this novel acceleration regime.

Main Methods:

• Numerical modeling was employed to simulate the interaction of few-cycle joule-class laser pulses with plasma.
• The simulations focused on analyzing energy transfer, electron acceleration, and wakefield dynamics.

Main Results:

• Numerical modeling predicts up to 50% laser pulse energy transfer to electrons exceeding 15 MeV.
• High electron charges, in the nanocoulomb range, are predicted for electrons accelerated to hundreds of MeV.
• Rapid laser energy depletion drives a strong, cavitated wakefield, leading to massive self-injection.

Conclusions:

• The explored regime of wakefield acceleration with few-cycle joule-class laser pulses is highly efficient.
• This approach is suitable for developing advanced Bremsstrahlung emitters and tertiary particle generators, including neutron sources via photonuclear reactions.