• Behm, K.
• Chvykov, V.
• He, Z-H
• Vargas, M.
• Schumaker, W.
• Thomas, Alexander
• Krushelnick, K.
• Maksimchuk, A.
• Yanovsky, V.
• Zhao, Z.
• Hou, B.

Abstract

<p>High intensity, short pulse lasers can be used to accelerate electrons to ultra-relativistic energies via laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) [T. Tajima and J. M. Dawson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 267 (1979)]. Recently, it was shown that separating the injection and acceleration processes into two distinct stages could prove beneficial in obtaining stable, high energy electron beams [Gonsalves et al., Nat. Phys. 7, 862 (2011); Liu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 035001 (2011); Pollock et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 045001 (2011)]. Here, we use a stereolithography based 3D printer to produce two-stage gas targets for LWFA experiments on the HERCULES laser system at the University of Michigan. We demonstrate substantial improvements to the divergence, pointing stability, and energy spread of a laser wakefield accelerated electron beam compared with a single-stage gas cell or gas jet target. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.</p>

Topics

• experiment
• liquid-liquid chromatography