A review of recent progress on laser-plasma acceleration at kHz repetition rate

• Published in: Plasma physics and controlled fusion Vol. 61; no. 1; pp. 14012 - 14023
• Main Authors: Faure, J, Gustas, D, Guénot, D, Vernier, A, Böhle, F, Ouillé, M, Haessler, S, Lopez-Martens, R, Lifschitz, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.01.2019
• Subjects: high-repetition rate plasma accelerator; laser-plasma accelerator; Physics; Plasma Physics; relativistic laser-plasma interaction; single-cycle laser pulse; relativistic laser-plasma interaction; high-repetition rate plasma accelerator; laser-plasma accelerator; single-cycle laser pulse
• ISSN: 0741-3335; 1361-6587
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6587/aae047

We report on recent progress on laser-plasma acceleration using a low energy and high-repetition rate laser system. Using only few milliJoule laser energy, in conjunction with extremely short pulses composed of a single optical cycle, we demonstrate that the laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) can be operated close to the resonant blowout regime. This results in the production of high charge electron beams (>10 pC) with peaked energy distributions in the few MeV range and relatively narrow divergence angles. We highlight the importance of the plasma density profile and gas jet design for the performance of the LPA. In this extreme regime of relativistic laser-plasma interaction with near-single-cycle laser pulses, we find that the effect of group velocity dispersion and carrier envelope phase can no longer be neglected. These advances bring LPAs closer to real scientific applications in ultrafast probing.