New Paper in Physical Review X
Moritz Foerster and colleagues publish exciting results on "hybrid" laser-plasma wakefield acceleration
12.11.2022
A team of researchers around Moritz Foerster (PhD student in Prof. Stefan Karsch's group) has developed a hybrid approach for plasma-based accelerators that promises to improve the stability and quality of generated electron bunches. This approach combines the advantages of two different accelerator types and has been proven to outperform pure laser-driven acceleration in terms of stability and spectral-spatial charge density. These results are of immediate interest for high-impact applications such as plasma-based free-electron lasers, and could potentially revolutionize the field of particle accelerators.
The team’s research combines a laser-driven wakefield accelerator and a particle-driven wakefield accelerator, using a robust optical injection scheme to internally inject “witness bunches” of electrons. This method is expected to offer a dramatic reduction in size compared to traditional accelerators, while providing improved stability and quality of the generated electron bunches.
The research is part of a long-standing effort to establish "hybrid" laser-plasma accelerators as a new branch of high-gradient accelerators, a research goal conducted together with collaborators at the Helmholtz centers HZDR and DESY, as well as international collaborators from LOA (France) and University of Strathclyde (UK).
Original publication: F. M. Foerster et al., Stable and High-Quality Electron Beams from Staged Laser and Plasma Wakefield Accelerators, Phys. Rev. X 12, 041016 (2022) - PDF