All-Optical Blast-Wave Control of Laser Wakefield Acceleration in a Near-Critical Plasma

We propose a novel method for changing the length of laser wakefield electron acceleration in a gas jet using a cylindrical blast-wave created by a perpendicularly focused nanosecond laser pulse. The shock front modifies the wake significantly and stops interaction between the laser pulse and accelerated electron bunch, allowing one to directly control the interaction length and avoid dephasing. It also improves the electron beam quality through the plasma lensing effect between the two shock fronts. We demonstrated both experimentally and numerically how this approach can be used to form a quasimonoenergetic electron bunch with controlled energy and improved divergence as well as tracking changes in the bunch parameters during acceleration.