Speaker
Description
Laser–plasma accelerators (LPAs) sustain accelerating gradients orders of magnitude beyond those of radio frequency structures, offering compact sources of multi-GeV electron beams. Yet single-stage energy gain remains fundamentally constrained by laser depletion. Overcoming this limit requires staging: the sequential coupling of multiple plasma accelerator modules, each driven by an independent laser pulse.
In this talk, I will present recent progress toward practical LPA staging, focusing on three critical elements. The first is the production of a GeV-class first stage delivering percent-level energy spread with both shot-to-shot and day-to-day stability—performance that is essential for high-efficiency charge capture in a downstream stage. The second is compact refocusing of this beam using a capillary-discharge active plasma lens to enable efficient coupling into the subsequent accelerator module. The third element I will discuss is delivery of an independent drive laser to the second stage using a plasma mirror that enables compact integration along the electron beamline.
To assess operational robustness, I will present a tolerance study based on experimentally measured laser and electron-beam fluctuations. Misalignments, electron beam energy and energy spread variations, and timing jitter between the two drive pulses are investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. These studies quantify capture efficiency and staged energy gain under realistic operating conditions and define the stability requirements for future multi-stage systems.
Together, these advances represent concrete steps toward scalable, modular LPA architectures capable of extending electron energies beyond the limits of single-stage systems.
| Working group | WG1 |
|---|