High-quality electron beams from a helical inverse free-electron laser accelerator
Open Access
- 15 September 2014
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Communications
- Vol. 5 (1), 4928
- https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5928
Abstract
Compact, table-top sized accelerators are key to improving access to high-quality beams for use in industry, medicine and academic research. Among laser-based accelerating schemes, the inverse free-electron laser (IFEL) enjoys unique advantages. By using an undulator magnetic field in combination with a laser, GeV m−1 gradients may be sustained over metre-scale distances using laser intensities several orders of magnitude less than those used in laser wake-field accelerators. Here we show for the first time the capture and high-gradient acceleration of monoenergetic electron beams from a helical IFEL. Using a modest intensity (~1013 W cm−2) laser pulse and strongly tapered 0.5 m long undulator, we demonstrate >100 MV m−1 accelerating gradient, >50 MeV energy gain and excellent output beam quality. Our results pave the way towards compact, tunable GeV IFEL accelerators for applications such as driving soft X-ray free-electron lasers and producing γ-rays by inverse Compton scattering.This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- First lasing and operation of an ångstrom-wavelength free-electron laserNature Photonics, 2010
- Physics of laser-driven plasma-based electron acceleratorsReviews of Modern Physics, 2009
- High Energy Gain of Trapped Electrons in a Tapered, Diffraction-Dominated Inverse-Free-Electron LaserPhysical Review Letters, 2005
- Demonstration of High-Trapping Efficiency and Narrow Energy Spread in a Laser-Driven AcceleratorPhysical Review Letters, 2004
- A three-dimensional magnetostatics computer code for insertion devicesJournal of Synchrotron Radiation, 1998
- High-energy inverse free-electron-laser acceleratorPhysical Review A, 1985
- Collective instabilities and high-gain regime in a free electron laserOptics Communications, 1984
- Transport properties in a spin polarized gas, IIIJournal de Physique, 1983
- Electron-beam-controlled transmission of 10-μm radiation in semiconductorsJournal of Applied Physics, 1979
- Interaction of Relativistic Particles and Free Electromagnetic Waves in the Presence of a Static Helical MagnetJournal of Applied Physics, 1972