Relativistic electron beams have applications spanning materials science, medicine, and home- land security. Recent advances in short pulse laser technology have enabled the production of very high focused intensities at kHz rep rates. Consequently this has led to the generation of high ux sources of relativistic electrons- which is a necessary characteristic of these laser plasma sources for any potential application. In our experiments, through the generation of a plasma with the lambda cubed laser system at the University of Michigan (a 5 × 10¹⁸W=cm², 500 Hz, Ti:Sapphire laser), we have measured electrons ejected from the surface of fused silica nd Cu targets having energies in excess of an MeV. The spectrum of these electrons was measured with respect to incident laser angle, prepulse timing, and focusing conditions. While taken at a high repetition rate, the pulse energy of the lambda cubed system was consistently on the order of 10 mJ. In order to predict scaling of the electron energy with laser pulse energy, simulations are underway which compare the spectrum generated with the lambda cubed system to the predicted spectrum generated on the petawatt scale HERCULES laser system at the University of Michigan.

Date Published: 14 May 2015
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 9514, Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions III; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles III, 95141F (14 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2178948

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9514:
Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions III; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles III
Kenneth W. D. Ledingham; Eric Esarey; Carl B. Schroeder; Klaus Spohr; Paul McKenna; Florian J. Grüner; Paul R. Bolton, Editor(s)