Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Bright X-ray radiation from plasma bubbles in a...

Bright X-ray radiation from plasma bubbles in an evolving laser wakefield accelerator

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal article

Published
• M. S. Bloom
• M. J. V. Streeter
• S. Kneip
• R. A. Bendoyro
• O. Cheklov
• J. M. Cole
• A. Doepp
• C. J. Hooker
• J. Holloway
• J. Jiang
• N. C. Lopes
• H. Nakamura
• P. A. Norreys
• P. P. Rajeev
• D. R. Symes
• J. Schreiber
• J. C. Wood
• M. Wing
• Z. Najmudin
• S. P. D. Mangles
Close
Journal publication date 16/10/2017 arXiv.org 5 Published English

Abstract

We show that the properties of the electron beam and bright X-rays produced by a laser wakefield accelerator can be predicted if the distance over which the laser self-focuses and compresses prior to self-injection is taken into account. A model based on oscillations of the beam inside a plasma bubble shows that performance is optimised when the plasma length is matched to the laser depletion length. With a 200~TW laser pulse this results in an X-ray beam with median photon energy of 20 keV, $> 10^{9}$ photons per shot and a peak brightness of $4 \times 10^{23}$ photons s$^{-1}$ mrad$^{-2}$ mm$^{-2}$ (0.1 % BW)$^{-1}$.

Bibliographic note

5 pages, 4 figures