Speaker
Description
Laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) staging, which couples two or more LPAs sequentially, can overcome laser depletion and increase the electron beam energy. Precision electron beam focusing is critical for high charge coupling efficiency between the first and second stages. In this poster, I will present the status of recent experiments performed at the BELLA PW laser facility on compact focusing of ~1.5 GeV electron beams after an LPA with a capillary active plasma lens (APL). This includes stability and control of electron beam size and position at the second stage. We find that the use of 10s of micron thick tape is a limiting factor in focused spot size, and transverse position control is limited by laser pointing fluctuations. Both of these issues limit charge capture efficiency. Hence we are developing laser stabilization and thinner liquid crystal plasma mirrors for full charge capture in the second stage.
This work was supported by the United States Department of Energy Office of Science, Offices of HEP under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the ASSERT Program.
| Working group | WG1 |
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