Meter-scale conditioned hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels

Simon M. Hooker; Aarón Alejo; Christopher Arran; Alexander von Boetticher; Nicolas Bourgeois; Laura Corner; Linus Feder; George Hine; James A. Holloway; Oscar Jakobsson; Harry Jones; Jakob Jonnerby; Howard M. Milchberg; Alexander Picksley; Lewis R. Reid; Aimee J. Ross; Robert J. Shalloo; Christopher Thornton; Roman Walczak

doi:10.1117/12.2592325

18 April 2021 Meter-scale conditioned hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels

Simon M. Hooker, Aarón Alejo, Christopher Arran, Alexander von Boetticher, Nicolas Bourgeois, Laura Corner, Linus Feder, George Hine, James A. Holloway, Oscar Jakobsson, Harry Jones, Jakob Jonnerby, Howard M. Milchberg, Alexander Picksley, Lewis R. Reid, Aimee J. Ross, Robert J. Shalloo, Christopher Thornton, Roman Walczak

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 11779, Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions VI; 1177903 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2592325
Event: SPIE Optics + Optoelectronics, 2021, Online Only

Abstract

In a multi-GeV laser-driven plasma accelerator the driving laser pulse must remain focused as it propagates through tens of centimetres of plasma of density 1017 cm-3. This distance is orders of magnitude greater than the Rayleigh range, and hence the laser pulse must be guided with low losses. Since many applications of laser-plasma accelerators will require that the pulse repetition rate is in the kilohertz range, methods for guiding relativistically-intense laser pulses at high repetition rates must be developed. We describe the development of hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized (HOFI) plasma channels and conditioned HOFI channels, which can meet all of these challenging requirements. We present experiments and numerical simulations that show that hydrodynamic expansion of optical-field-ionized plasma columns can generate channels at low plasma densities. We show that guiding a conditioning pulse in a HOFI channel leads to the formation of long, very low loss plasma channels via ionization of the collar of neutral gas which surrounds the HOFI channel. We describe proof-of-principle experiments in which we generated conditioned HOFI (CHOFI) waveguides with axial electron densities of ne0 ≈ 1×1017 cm−3 and a matched spot size of approximately 30 μm. We present hydrodynamic and particle-in-cell simulations which demonstrate that meter-scale, low-loss CHOFI waveguides could be generated with a total laser pulse energy of about 1 J per meter of channel.

Conference Presentation

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Simon M. Hooker, Aarón Alejo, Christopher Arran, Alexander von Boetticher, Nicolas Bourgeois, Laura Corner, Linus Feder, George Hine, James A. Holloway, Oscar Jakobsson, Harry Jones, Jakob Jonnerby, Howard M. Milchberg, Alexander Picksley, Lewis R. Reid, Aimee J. Ross, Robert J. Shalloo, Christopher Thornton, and Roman Walczak "Meter-scale conditioned hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels", Proc. SPIE 11779, Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions VI, 1177903 (18 April 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2592325

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