Laser Plasma Accelerators

Abstract

The continuing development of powerful laser systems has permitted to extend the interaction of laser beams with matter far into the relativistic domain, and to demonstrate new approaches for producing energetic particle beams. The extremely large electric fields, with amplitudes exceeding the TV/m level, that are produced in plasma medium are of relevance particle acceleration. Since the value of this longitudinal electric field, 10,000 times larger than those produced in conventional radio-frequency cavities, plasma accelerators appear to be very promising for the development of compact accelerators. The incredible progresses in the understanding of laser plasma interaction physic, allows an excellent control of electron injection and acceleration. Thanks to these recent achievements, laser plasma accelerators deliver today high quality beams of energetic radiation and particles. These beams have a number of interesting properties such as shortness, brightness and spatial quality, and could lend themselves to applications in many fields, including medicine, radio-biology, chemistry, physics and material science,security (material inspection), and of course in accelerator science.