Wednesday 9 Sepember 2009

Speaker: Simon Hooker   (Oxford)

Title: Laser-Driven Plasma Accelerators

Abstract:

Electrons are pushed away from the front and back of a high-intensity laser pulse as it propagates through a plasma,
leading to the formation of a plasma wave which trails the laser pulse. The longitudinal electric field within this
wave can be as high as 100 GV/m – more than three orders of magnitude larger than that found in the RF accelerators
used at synchrotron and particle accelerator facilities around the world. Laser-driven plasma accelerators are
therefore able to accelerate particles to high energies in a fraction of the length required with conventional
technology, and in the longer term may offer a way to reach energies beyond those possible with current technology.

I will describe the operation of laser-driven plasma accelerators and discuss the factors which limit the beam
energy that they can reach. I will present the results of several experiments, including recent experiments with the
Astra-Gemini laser, in which electron beams were generated with energies up to 1 GeV. I will also discuss the
application of laser-driven plasma accelerators to the generation of tunable femtosecond-duration x-ray pulses, as
well as their potential for reaching energies significantly beyond the GeV range.