Injection and staging for laser plasma accelerators

Abstract

Controlled injection and staging are critical elements to the improvement of the stability, quality, and tunability of laser plasma accelerators (LPAs) [1, 2]. This paper will discuss techniques such as colliding pulse [3], density tailoring [4, 5], and ionization injection [6, 7, 8], which have recently allowed for the generation of high-energy femtosecond electron beams with percent-level energy spread and stability, and state-of-the-art emittance. Progress on staged acceleration will also be presented, which promises to further increase beam quality, allow for mapping of the wakefield, and overcome the limit of pump depletion [9]. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.