Active energy compression of a laser-plasma electron beam

Area of Science:

• Particle accelerators
• Plasma physics
• Laser-driven acceleration

Background:

• Radio-frequency (RF) accelerators are crucial for science, industry, and medicine.
• Laser-plasma accelerators offer higher electric fields and compact designs compared to RF accelerators.
• Existing laser-plasma accelerators suffer from large energy spread and jitter, limiting applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance laser-plasma accelerators to meet the performance standards of RF accelerators.
• To reduce energy spread and energy jitter in laser-plasma electron beams.
• To enable real-world applications for compact laser-plasma accelerators.

Main Methods:

• Utilized active energy compression techniques.
• Employed a magnetic chicane to imprint an energy correlation on the electron bunch.
• Used an active radio-frequency (RF) cavity to remove the imprinted energy correlation.

Main Results:

• Achieved a reduction in energy spread and energy jitter by over an order of magnitude.
• Reduced energy spread and jitter to below the permille level.
• Demonstrated performance comparable to modern RF-based accelerators.

Conclusions:

• The developed active energy compression method significantly improves laser-plasma accelerator beam quality.
• The achieved performance meets the acceptance criteria for modern synchrotrons.
• This advancement paves the way for compact storage ring injectors and other applications.