- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Ultrabroad-band x-ray source using a picosecond, laser-driven plasma accelerator

N. Lemos1, P. M. King1,2, D. Rusby1, I. Pagano1,2, M. Sinclair3, K. A. Marsh3, J. L. Shaw4, A. L. Milder4, A. Pak1 et al.

B. B. Pollock1, M. Aufderheide1, F. V. Hartemann1,5, S. Q. Wu1, Y. Hwang5, B. M. Hegelich2,6,7, J. Moody1, P. Michel1, C. Joshi3, and F. Albert1

  • 1Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NIF and Photon Sciences, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
  • 3Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
  • 4Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623, USA
  • 5Lumitron Technologies, Incorporated, Irvine, California 92617, USA
  • 6Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science, Gwangju 61005, Korea
  • 7Department of Physics and Photon Science, GIST, Gwangju 61005, Korea

PDF

Phys. Rev. Research 6, L032022 – Published 26 July, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L032022

Abstract

An ultrabroad-band x-ray source, with photon energies from 10 keV to >1 MeV, based on a picosecond laser-driven plasma accelerator, is characterized and used to radiograph high-energy-density-science relevant targets. The measured yield of 1012 photons/shot is reaching the necessary photon yields to radiograph, in a single shot, high areal density objects and matter under extreme conditions. By focusing a short laser pulse (120 J, 1 ps) into a gas jet, a <100 mrad electron beam with energies up to 350 MeV and up to 70 nC of charge was produced by a combination of laser self-modulation instability and direct laser acceleration. A foil placed at the exit of the gas jet is used to convert part of the electron beam energy into x rays through inverse bremsstrahlung and/or inverse Compton scattering, generating a bright, broad-band, high-photon-energy beam. This beam is used to radiograph a gold half hohlraum with a high-density sphere inside with relevant characteristics for high-energy-density science and inertial confinement fusion.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (56)

  1. B. A. Remington, High energy density laboratory astrophysics, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 47, A191 (2005).
  2. J. Lindl, Development of the indirect-drive approach to inertial confinement fusion and the target physics basis for ignition and gain, Phys. Plasmas 2, 3933 (1995).
  3. A. B. Zylstra, O. A. Hurricane, D. A. Callahan, A. L. Kritcher, J. E. Ralph, H. F. Robey, J. S. Ross, C. V. Young, K. L. Baker, D. T. Casey et al., Burning plasma achieved in inertial fusion, Nature (London) 601, 542 (2022).
  4. W. S. Varnum, N. D. Delamater, S. C. Evans, P. L. Gobby, J. E. Moore, J. M. Wallace, R. G. Watt, J. D. Colvin, R. Turner, V. Glebov, J. Soures, and C. Stoeckl, Progress toward ignition with noncryogenic double-shell capsules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5153 (2000).
  5. T. Goldsack, T. Bryant, P. Beech, S. Clough, G. Cooper, R. Davitt, R. Edwards, N. Kenna, J. McLean, A. Pearce, M. Phillips, K. Pullinger, D. Short, M. Sinclair, K. Thomas, J. Threadgold, M. Williamson, and K. Krushelnick, Multimegavolt multiaxis high-resolution flash x-ray source development for a new hydrodynamics research facility at AWE Aldermaston, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 30, 239 (2002).
  6. R. Tommasini, S. P. Hatchett, D. S. Hey, C. Iglesias, N. Izumi, J. A. Koch, O. L. Landen, A. J. MacKinnon, C. Sorce, J. A. Delettrez, V. Y. Glebov, T. C. Sangster, and C. Stoeckl, Development of Compton radiography of inertial confinement fusion implosions, Phys. Plasmas 18, 056309 (2011).
  7. R. Tommasini, O. L. Landen, L. Berzak Hopkins, S. P. Hatchett, D. H. Kalantar, W. W. Hsing, D. A. Alessi, S. L. Ayers, S. D. Bhandarkar, M. W. Bowers, D. K. Bradley, A. D. Conder, J. M. Di Nicola, P. Di Nicola, L. Divol, D. Fittinghoff, G. Gururangan, G. N. Hall, M. Hamamoto, D. R. Hargrove et al., Time-resolved fuel density profiles of the stagnation phase of indirect-drive inertial confinement implosions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 155003 (2020).
  8. S. Jiang, L. L. Ji, H. Audesirk, K. M. George, J. Snyder, A. Krygier, P. Poole, C. Willis, R. Daskalova, E. Chowdhury, N. S. Lewis, D. W. Schumacher, A. Pukhov, R. R. Freeman, and K. U. Akli, Microengineering laser plasma interactions at relativistic intensities, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 085002 (2016).
  9. A. G. MacPhee, D. Alessi, H. Chen, G. Cochran, M. R. Hermann, D. H. Kalantar, A. J. Kemp, S. M. Kerr, A. J. Link, T. Ma, A. J. Mackinnon, D. A. Mariscal, D. Schlossberg, R. Tommasini, S. Vonhof, C. C. Widmayer, S. C. Wilks, G. J. Williams, W. H. Williams, and K. Youngblood, Enhanced laser–plasma interactions using non-imaging optical concentrator targets, Optica 7, 129 (2020).
  10. D. R. Rusby, P. M. King, A. Pak, N. Lemos, S. Kerr, G. Cochran, I. Pagano, A. Hannasch, H. Quevedo, M. Spinks, M. Donovan, A. Link, A. Kemp, S. C. Wilks, G. J. Williams, M. J.-E. Manuel, Z. Gavin, A. Haid, F. Albert, M. Aufderheide et al., Enhancements in laser-generated hot-electron production via focusing cone targets at short pulse and high contrast, Phys. Rev. E 103, 053207 (2021).
  11. F. Albert and A. G. R. Thomas, Applications of laser wakefield accelerator-based light sources, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 58, 103001 (2016).
  12. S. Corde, K. Ta Phuoc, G. Lambert, R. Fitour, V. Malka, A. Rousse, A. Beck, and E. Lefebvre, Femtosecond x rays from laser-plasma accelerators, Rev. Mod. Phys. 85, 1 (2013).
  13. E. Esarey, B. A. Shadwick, P. Catravas, and W. P. Leemans, Synchrotron radiation from electron beams in plasma-focusing channels, Phys. Rev. E 65, 056505 (2002).
  14. Y. Glinec, J. Faure, L. L. Dain, S. Darbon, T. Hosokai, J. J. Santos, E. Lefebvre, J. P. Rousseau, F. Burgy, B. Mercier, and V. Malka, High-resolution γ-ray radiography produced by a laser-plasma driven electron source, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 025003 (2005).
  15. F. Albert, Principles and applications of x-ray light sources driven by laser wakefield acceleration, Phys. Plasmas 30, 050902 (2023).
  16. C. Courtois, R. Edwards, A. Compant La Fontaine, C. Aedy, S. Bazzoli, J. L. Bourgade, J. Gazave, J. M. Lagrange, O. Landoas, L. L. Dain, D. Mastrosimone, N. Pichoff, G. Pien, and C. Stoeckl, Characterization of a MeV bremsstrahlung x-ray source produced from a high intensity laser for high areal density object radiography, Phys. Plasmas 20, 083114 (2013).
  17. M. D. Perry, J. A. Sefcik, T. Cowan, S. Hatchett, A. Hunt, M. Moran, D. Pennington, R. Snavely, and S. C. Wilks, Hard x-ray production from high intensity laser solid interactions (invited), Rev. Sci. Instrum. 70, 265 (1999).
  18. P. A. Norreys, M. Santala, E. Clark, M. Zepf, I. Watts, F. N. Beg, K. Krushelnick, M. Tatarakis, A. E. Dangor, X. Fang, P. Graham, T. McCanny, R. P. Singhal, K. W. D. Ledingham, A. Creswell, D. C. W. Sanderson, J. Magill, A. Machacek, J. S. Wark, R. Allott et al., Observation of a highly directional γ-ray beam from ultrashort, ultraintense laser pulse interactions with solids, Phys. Plasmas 6, 2150 (1999).
  19. S. P. Hatchett, C. G. Brown, T. E. Cowan, E. A. Henry, J. S. Johnson, M. H. Key, J. A. Koch, A. B. Langdon, B. F. Lasinski, R. W. Lee, A. J. Mackinnon, D. M. Pennington, M. D. Perry, T. W. Phillips, M. Roth, T. C. Sangster, M. S. Singh, R. A. Snavely, M. A. Stoyer, S. C. Wilks et al., Electron, photon, and ion beams from the relativistic interaction of petawatt laser pulses with solid targets, Phys. Plasmas 7, 2076 (2000).
  20. J. C. Fernández, D. Cort Gautier, C. Huang, S. Palaniyappan, B. J. Albright, W. Bang, G. Dyer, A. Favalli, J. F. Hunter, J. Mendez, M. Roth, M. Swinhoe, P. A. Bradley, O. Deppert, M. Espy, K. Falk, N. Guler, C. Hamilton, B. M. Hegelich, D. Henzlova et al., Laser-plasmas in the relativistic-transparency regime: Science and applications, Phys. Plasmas 24, 056702 (2017).
  21. J. D. Hares, J. D. Kilkenny, M. H. Key, and J. G. Lunney, Measurement of fast-electron energy spectra and preheating in laser-irradiated targets, Phys. Rev. Lett. 42, 1216 (1979).
  22. H. Chen, B. Soom, B. Yaakobi, S. Uchida, and D. D. Meyerhofer, Hot-electron characterization from Kα measurements in high-contrast, p-polarized, picosecond laser-plasma interactions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 3431 (1993).
  23. A. Rousse, P. Audebert, J. P. Geindre, F. Falliès, J. C. Gauthier, A. Mysyrowicz, G. Grillon, and A. Antonetti, Efficient Kα x-ray source from femtosecond laser-produced plasmas, Phys. Rev. E 50, 2200 (1994).
  24. A. B. Sefkow, G. R. Bennett, M. Geissel, M. Schollmeier, B. C. Franke, and B. W. Atherton, Efficiency enhancement for Kα x-ray yields from laser-driven relativistic electrons in solids, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 235002 (2011).
  25. H. S. Park, D. M. Chambers, H. K. Chung, R. J. Clarke, R. Eagleton, E. Giraldez, T. Goldsack, R. Heathcote, N. Izumi, M. H. Key, J. A. King, J. A. Koch, O. L. Landen, A. Nikroo, P. K. Patel, D. F. Price, B. A. Remington, H. F. Robey, R. A. Snavely, D. A. Steinman et al., High-energy Kα radiography using high-intensity, short-pulse lasers, Phys. Plasmas 13, 056309 (2006).
  26. B. Westover, A. MacPhee, C. Chen, D. Hey, T. Ma, B. Maddox, H. S. Park, B. Remington, and F. N. Beg, Study of silver Kα and bremsstrahlung radiation from short-pulse laser-matter interactions with applications for x-ray radiography, Phys. Plasmas 17, 082703 (2010).
  27. K. T. Phuoc, S. Corde, C. Thaury, V. Malka, A. Tafzi, J. P. Goddet, R. C. Shah, S. Sebban, and A. Rousse, All-optical Compton gamma-ray source, Nat. Photonics 6, 308 (2012).
  28. S. Kneip, C. McGuffey, J. L. Martins, S. F. Martins, C. Bellei, V. Chvykov, F. Dollar, R. Fonseca, C. Huntington, G. Kalintchenko, A. Maksimchuk, S. P. D. Mangles, T. Matsuoka, S. R. Nagel, C. A. J. Palmer, J. Schreiber, K. T. Phuoc, A. G. R. Thomas, V. Yanovsky, L. O. Silva et al., Bright spatially coherent synchrotron x-rays from a table-top source, Nat. Phys. 6, 980 (2010).
  29. A. Modena, Z. Najmudin, A. Dangor, C. Clayton, K. Marsh, C. Joshi, V. Malka, C. Darrow, C. Danson, D. Neely, and F. Walsh, Electron acceleration from the breaking of relativistic plasma-waves, Nature (London) 377, 606 (1995).
  30. C. Joshi, T. Tajima, J. M. Dawson, H. A. Baldis, and N. A. Ebrahim, Forward Raman instability and electron acceleration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 47, 1285 (1981).
  31. A. Pukhov, Z.-M. Sheng, and J. Meyer-ter-Vehn, Particle acceleration in relativistic laser channels, Phys. Plasmas 6, 2847 (1999).
  32. J. Shaw, M. Romo-Gonzalez, N. Lemos et al., Microcoulomb (0.7±0.40.2µC) laser plasma accelerator on OMEGA EP, Sci. Rep. 11, 7498 (2021).
  33. P. M. King, K. Miller, N. Lemos, J. L. Shaw, B. F. Kraus, M. Thibodeau, B. M. Hegelich, J. Hinojosa, P. Michel, C. Joshi, K. A. Marsh, W. Mori, A. Pak, A. G. R. Thomas, and F. Albert, Predominant contribution of direct laser acceleration to high-energy electron spectra in a low-density self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 24, 011302 (2021).
  34. F. Albert, N. Lemos, J. L. Shaw, B. B. Pollock, C. Goyon, W. Schumaker, A. M. Saunders, K. A. Marsh, A. Pak, J. E. Ralph, J. L. Martins, L. D. Amorim, R. W. Falcone, S. H. Glenzer, J. D. Moody, and C. Joshi, Observation of betatron x-ray radiation in a self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator driven with picosecond laser pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 134801 (2017).
  35. S. Kneip, N. S. R., C. Bellei, N. Bourgeois, A. E. Dangor, A. Gopal, R. Heathcote, S. P. D. Mangles, J. R. Marquès, A. Maksimchuk, P. M. Nilson, K. T. Phuoc, S. Reed, M. Tzoufras, F. S. Tsung, L. Willingale, W. B. Mori, A. Rousse, K. Krushelnick, and Z. Najmudin, Observation of synchrotron radiation from electrons accelerated in a petawatt-laser-generated plasma cavity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 105006 (2008).
  36. N. Lemos, P. King, J. L. Shaw, A. L. Milder, K. A. Marsh, A. Pak, B. B. Pollock, C. Goyon, W. Schumaker, A. M. Saunders, D. Papp, R. Polanek, J. E. Ralph, J. Park, R. Tommasini, G. J. Williams, H. Chen, F. V. Hartemann, S. Q. Wu, S. H. Glenzer et al., X-ray sources using a picosecond laser driven plasma accelerator, Phys. Plasmas 26, 083110 (2019).
  37. N. Lemos, J. L. Martins, F. S. Tsung, J. L. Shaw, K. A. Marsh, F. Albert, B. B. Pollock, and C. Joshi, Self-modulated laser wakefield accelerators as x-ray sources, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 58, 034018 (2016).
  38. N. D. Powers, I. Ghebregziabher, G. Golovin, C. Liu, S. Chen, S. Banerjee, J. Zhang, and D. P. Umstadter, Quasi-monoenergetic and tunable x-rays from a laser-driven Compton light source, Nat. Photonics 8, 28 (2014).
  39. G. R. Bennett, M. E. Cuneo, R. A. Vesey, J. L. Porter, R. G. Adams, R. A. Aragon, J. A. Caird, O. L. Landen, P. K. Rambo, D. C. Rovang, L. E. Ruggles, W. W. Simpson, I. C. Smith, and D. F. Wenger, Symmetric inertial-confinement-fusion-capsule implosions in a double-Z-pinch-driven hohlraum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 245002 (2002).
  40. F. V. Hartemann, High-Field Electrodynamics (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2001).
  41. N. Lemos, N. Lopes, J. M. Dias, and F. Viola, Design and characterization of supersonic nozzles for wide focus laser-plasma interactions, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 80, 103301 (2009).
  42. S. Semushin and V. Malka, High density gas jet nozzle design for laser target production, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 72, 2961 (2001).
  43. N. Lemos, L. Cardoso, J. Geada, G. Figueira, F. Albert, and J. M. Dias, Guiding of laser pulses in plasma waveguides created by linearly-polarized femtosecond laser pulses, Sci. Rep. 8, 3165 (2018).
  44. J. L. Shaw, N. Lemos, L. D. Amorim, N. Vafaei-Najafabadi, K. A. Marsh, F. S. Tsung, W. B. Mori, and C. Joshi, Role of direct laser acceleration of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator with ionization injection, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 064801 (2017).
  45. J. L. Shaw, F. S. Tsung, N. Vafaei-Najafabadi, K. A. Marsh, N. Lemos, W. B. Mori, and C. Joshi, Role of direct laser acceleration in energy gained by electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator with ionization injection, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 56, 084006 (2014).
  46. X. Zhang, V. N. Khudik, and G. Shvets, Synergistic laser-wakefield and direct-laser acceleration in the plasma-bubble regime, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 184801 (2015).
  47. S. P. D. Mangles, B. R. Walton, M. Tzoufras, Z. Najmudin, R. J. Clarke, A. E. Dangor, R. G. Evans, S. Fritzler, A. Gopal, C. Hernandez-Gomez, W. B. Mori, W. Rozmus, M. Tatarakis, A. G. R. Thomas, F. S. Tsung, M. S. Wei, and K. Krushelnick, Electron acceleration in cavitated channels formed by a petawatt laser in low-density plasma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 245001 (2005).
  48. G. Doumy, F. Quéré, O. Gobert, M. Perdrix, P. Martin, P. Audebert, J. C. Gauthier, J. P. Geindre, and T. Wittmann, Complete characterization of a plasma mirror for the production of high-contrast ultraintense laser pulses, Phys. Rev. E 69, 026402 (2004).
  49. P. M. King, N. Lemos, J. L. Shaw, A. L. Milder, K. A. Marsh, A. Pak, B. M. Hegelich, P. Michel, J. Moody, C. Joshi, and F. Albert, X-ray analysis methods for sources from self-modulated laser wakefield acceleration driven by picosecond lasers, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 90, 033503 (2019).
  50. C. D. Chen, J. A. King, M. H. Key, K. U. Akli, F. N. Beg, H. Chen, R. R. Freeman, A. Link, A. J. Mackinnon, A. G. MacPhee, P. K. Patel, M. Porkolab, R. B. Stephens, and L. D. Van Woerkom, A Bremsstrahlung spectrometer using k-edge and differential filters with image plate dosimeters, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 10E305 (2008).
  51. G. J. Williams, R. Tommasini, N. Lemos, J. Park, and H. Chen, High-energy differential-filtering photon spectrometer for ultraintense laser-matter interactions, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 89, 10F116 (2018).
  52. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L032022 for the electron beam and x-ray beams characterization has well as the details about the radiography simulations.
  53. C. Yu, R. Qi, W. Wang, J. Liu, W. Li, C. Wang, Z. Zhang, J. Liu, Z. Qin, M. Fang, K. Feng, Y. Wu, Y. Tian, Y. Xu, F. Wu, Y. Leng, X. Weng, J. Wang, F. Wei, Y. Yi et al., Ultrahigh brilliance quasi-monochromatic MeV γ-rays based on self-synchronized all-optical Compton scattering, Sci. Rep. 6, 29518.
  54. H.-E. Tsai, X. Wang, J. Shaw, A. V. Arefiev, Z. Li, X. Zhang, R. Zgadzaj, W. Henderson, V. Khudik, G. Shvets, and M. C. Downer, Compact tunable Compton x-ray source from laser wakefield accelerator and plasma mirror, Phys. Plasmas 22, 023106 (2015).
  55. M. Aufderheide, G. Henderson, A. von Wittenau, D. Slone, and H. Martz, HADES a code for simulating a variety of radiographic techniques, in IEEE Symposium Conference Record Nuclear Science 2004 (IEEE, New York, 2004), Vol. 4, pp. 2579–2583.
  56. I. Pagano et al. (unpublished).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 6, L032022– Published 26 July, 2024
  • Received 14 May 2023
  • Revised 1 March 2024
  • Accepted 30 May 2024
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation