Efficient plasma electron accelerator driven by linearly chirped multi-10-TW laser pulses

Abstract

The temporal rearrangement of the spectral components of an ultrafast and intense laser pulse, i.e., the chirp of the pulse, offers significant possibilities for controlling its interaction with matter and plasma. In the propagation of ultra-strong laser pulses within the self-induced plasma, laser pulse chirp can play a major role in the dynamics of wakefield and plasma bubble formation, as well as in the electron injection and related electron acceleration. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the control of the generation efficiency of a relativistic electron beam, with respect to maximum electron energy and current, by accurately varying the chirp value of a multi-10-TW laser pulse. We explicitly show that positively chirped laser pulses, i.e., pulses with instantaneous frequency increasing with time, accelerate electrons in the order of 100 MeV much more efficiently in comparison to unchirped or negatively chirped pulses. Corresponding Particle-In-Cell simulations strongly support the experimental results, depicting a smoother plasma bubble density distribution and electron injection conditions that favor the maximum acceleration of the electron beam, when positively chirped laser pulses are used. Our results, aside from extending the validity of similar studies reported for PW laser pulses, provide the ground for understanding the subtle dynamics of an efficient plasma electron accelerator driven by chirped laser pulses.