- 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

Direct visualization of shock front induced nonlinear laser wakefield dynamics

Eitan Y. Levine1, Yang Wan2,*, Sheroy Tata1, Daria Raspopova1, Eyal Kroupp1, and Victor Malka1

  • *Contact author: yangwan23@zzu.edu.cn
PDF

Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012041 – Published 25 February, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L012041

Abstract

Laser-plasma acceleration is considered to be a promising candidate for compactly delivering high-energy high-quality electron beams. One of the most common methods for injecting plasma electrons into the wakefield structure is the shock front injection. Here we present the first direct visualization of the nonlinear laser wakefield dynamics resulting from a tilted shock front using the femtosecond relativistic electron microscopy technique. Our observations reveal the occurrence of a split in the wakefield, with the formation of an on-axis laser-driven wakefield and an off-axis beam-driven wakefield just after the passage through the hydrodynamic shock. Using experimental and three-dimensional numerical evidence, we identify the mechanism of this newly observed phenomenon as an off-axis electron injection from the tilted shock, which amplified the betatron oscillations of the bunch until its breakup. These results propel our comprehension of the intricate and nonlinear laser-plasma dynamics within the widely employed shock-front injection scheme, providing crucial information for high-quality beam generation in real-time operations.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (52)

  1. T. Tajima and J. M. Dawson, Laser electron accelerator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 267 (1979).
  2. C. B. Schroeder, E. Esarey, C. G. R. Geddes, C. Benedetti, and W. P. Leemans, Physics considerations for laser-plasma linear colliders, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 13, 101301 (2010).
  3. S. Fourmaux, S. Corde, K. T. Phuoc, P. Lassonde, G. Lebrun, S. Payeur, F. Martin, S. Sebban, V. Malka, A. Rousse, and J. C. Kieffer, Single shot phase contrast imaging using laser-produced betatron x-ray beams, Opt. Lett. 36, 2426 (2011).
  4. S. Kneip, C. McGuffey, F. Dollar, M. S. Bloom, V. Chvykov, G. Kalintchenko, K. Krushelnick, A. Maksimchuk, S. P. D. Mangles, T. Matsuoka, Z. Najmudin, C. A. J. Palmer, J. Schreiber, W. Schumaker, A. G. R. Thomas, and V. Yanovsky, X-ray phase contrast imaging of biological specimens with femtosecond pulses of betatron radiation from a compact laser plasma wakefield accelerator, Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 093701 (2011).
  5. J. M. Cole, J. C. Wood, N. C. Lopes, K. Poder, R. L. Abel, S. Alatabi, J. S. J. Bryant, A. Jin, S. Kneip, K. Mecseki, D. R. Symes, S. P. D. Mangles, and Z. Najmudin, Laser-wakefield accelerators as hard x-ray sources for 3D medical imaging of human bone, Sci. Rep. 5, 13244 (2015).
  6. B. Guo, X. Zhang, J. Zhang, J. Hua, C.-H. Pai, C. Zhang, H.-H. Chu, W. Mori, C. Joshi, J. Wang, and W. Lu, High-resolution phase-contrast imaging of biological specimens using a stable betatron x-ray source in the multiple-exposure mode, Sci. Rep. 9, 7796 (2019).
  7. C. Chiu, M. Fomytskyi, F. Grigsby, F. Raischel, M. C. Downer, and T. Tajima, Laser electron accelerators for radiation medicine: A feasibility study, Med. Phys. 31, 2042 (2004).
  8. Y. Glinec, J. Faure, V. Malka, T. Fuchs, H. Szymanowski, and U. Oelfke, Radiotherapy with laser-plasma accelerators: Monte Carlo simulation of dose deposited by an experimental quasimonoenergetic electron beam, Med. Phys. 33, 155 (2006).
  9. L. Labate, D. Palla, D. Panetta, F. Avella, F. Baffigi, F. Brandi, F. Di Martino, L. Fulgentini, A. Giulietti, P. Köster, D. Terzani, P. Tomassini, C. Traino, and L. A. Gizzi, Toward an effective use of laser-driven very high energy electrons for radiotherapy: Feasibility assessment of multi-field and intensity modulation irradiation schemes, Sci. Rep. 10, 17307 (2020).
  10. Y. Glinec, J. Faure, L. Le 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).
  11. A. Ben-Ismaïl, O. Lundh, C. Rechatin, J. K. Lim, J. Faure, S. Corde, and V. Malka, Compact and high-quality gamma-ray source applied to 10 µm-range resolution radiography, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 264101 (2011).
  12. W. Wang, K. Feng, L. Ke, C. Yu, Y. Xu, R. Qi, Y. Chen, Z. Qin, Z. Zhang, M. Fang, J. Liu, K. Jiang, H. Wang, C. Wang, X. Yang, F. Wu, Y. Leng, J. Liu, R. Li, and Z. Xu, Free-electron lasing at 27 nanometres based on a laser wakefield accelerator, Nature (London) 595, 516 (2021).
  13. M. Labat et al., Seeded free-electron laser driven by a compact laser plasma accelerator, Nat. Photon. 17, 150 (2023).
  14. E. Esarey, C. B. Schroeder, and W. P. Leemans, Physics of laser-driven plasma-based electron accelerators, Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 1229 (2009).
  15. V. Malka, J. Faure, Y. A. Gauduel, E. Lefebvre, A. Rousse, and K. T. Phuoc, Principles and applications of compact laser–plasma accelerators, Nat. Phys. 4, 447 (2008).
  16. V. Malka, Laser plasma accelerators, Phys. Plasmas 19, 055501 (2012).
  17. J. Faure, C. Rechatin, A. Norlin, A. Lifschitz, Y. Glinec, and V. Malka, Controlled injection and acceleration of electrons in plasma wakefields by colliding laser pulses, Nature (London) 444, 737 (2006).
  18. V. Malka, J. Faure, C. Rechatin, A. Ben-Ismail, J. K. Lim, X. Davoine, and E. Lefebvre, Laser-driven accelerators by colliding pulses injection: A review of simulation and experimental results, Phys. Plasmas 16, 056703 (2009).
  19. A. Pak, K. A. Marsh, S. F. Martins, W. Lu, W. B. Mori, and C. Joshi, Injection and trapping of tunnel-ionized electrons into laser-produced wakes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 025003 (2010).
  20. C. McGuffey, A. G. R. Thomas, W. Schumaker, T. Matsuoka, V. Chvykov, F. J. Dollar, G. Kalintchenko, V. Yanovsky, A. Maksimchuk, K. Krushelnick, V. Y. Bychenkov, I. V. Glazyrin, and A. V. Karpeev, Ionization induced trapping in a laser wakefield accelerator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 025004 (2010).
  21. S. Bulanov, N. Naumova, F. Pegoraro, and J. Sakai, Particle injection into the wave acceleration phase due to nonlinear wake wave breaking, Phys. Rev. E 58, R5257 (1998).
  22. J. Faure, C. Rechatin, O. Lundh, L. Ammoura, and V. Malka, Injection and acceleration of quasimonoenergetic relativistic electron beams using density gradients at the edges of a plasma channel, Phys. Plasmas 17, 083107 (2010).
  23. K. Schmid, A. Buck, C. M. S. Sears, J. M. Mikhailova, R. Tautz, D. Herrmann, M. Geissler, F. Krausz, and L. Veisz, Density-transition based electron injector for laser driven wakefield accelerators, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 13, 091301 (2010).
  24. A. Buck, J. Wenz, J. Xu, K. Khrennikov, K. Schmid, M. Heigoldt, J. M. Mikhailova, M. Geissler, B. Shen, F. Krausz, S. Karsch, and L. Veisz, Shock-front injector for high-quality laser-plasma acceleration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 185006 (2013).
  25. H. Ekerfelt, M. Hansson, I. Gallardo González, X. Davoine, and O. Lundh, A tunable electron beam source using trapping of electrons in a density down-ramp in laser wakefield acceleration, Sci. Rep. 7, 12229 (2017).
  26. F. Massimo, A. F. Lifschitz, C. Thaury, and V. Malka, Numerical studies of density transition injection in laser wakefield acceleration, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 59, 085004 (2017).
  27. K. K. Swanson, H.-E. Tsai, S. K. Barber, R. Lehe, H.-S. Mao, S. Steinke, J. van Tilborg, K. Nakamura, C. G. R. Geddes, C. B. Schroeder, E. Esarey, and W. P. Leemans, Control of tunable, monoenergetic laser-plasma-accelerated electron beams using a shock-induced density downramp injector, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 20, 051301 (2017).
  28. H.-E. Tsai, K. K. Swanson, S. K. Barber, R. Lehe, H.-S. Mao, D. E. Mittelberger, S. Steinke, K. Nakamura, J. van Tilborg, C. Schroeder, E. Esarey, C. G. R. Geddes, and W. Leemans, Control of quasi-monoenergetic electron beams from laser-plasma accelerators with adjustable shock density profile, Phys. Plasmas 25, 043107 (2018).
  29. C. S. Hue, Y. Wan, E. Y. Levine, and V. Malka, Control of electron beam current, charge, and energy spread using density downramp injection in laser wakefield accelerators, Matter Radiat. Extremes 8, 024401 (2023).
  30. L. Fan-Chiang, H.-S. Mao, H.-E. Tsai, T. Ostermayr, K. K. Swanson, S. K. Barber, S. Steinke, J. van Tilborg, C. G. R. Geddes, and W. P. Leemans, Gas density structure of supersonic flows impinged on by thin blades for laser–plasma accelerator targets, Phys. Fluids 32, 066108 (2020).
  31. S. Mangles, B. Walton, Z. Najmudin, A. Dangor, K. Krushelnick, V. Malka, M. Manclossi, N. Lopes, C. Carias, G. Mendes et al., Table-top laser-plasma acceleration as an electron radiography source, Laser Part. Beams 24, 185 (2006).
  32. W. Schumaker, N. Nakanii, C. McGuffey, C. Zulick, V. Chyvkov, F. Dollar, H. Habara, G. Kalintchenko, A. Maksimchuk, K. A. Tanaka, A. G. R. Thomas, V. Yanovsky, and K. Krushelnick, Ultrafast electron radiography of magnetic fields in high-intensity laser-solid interactions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 015003 (2013).
  33. C. J. Zhang, J. F. Hua, X. L. Xu, F. Li, C.-H. Pai, Y. Wan, Y. P. Wu, Y. Q. Gu, W. B. Mori, C. Joshi, and W. Lu, Capturing relativistic wakefield structures in plasmas using ultrashort high-energy electrons as a probe, Sci. Rep. 6, 29485 (2016).
  34. C. J. Zhang, J. F. Hua, Y. Wan, C.-H. Pai, B. Guo, J. Zhang, Y. Ma, F. Li, Y. P. Wu, H.-H. Chu, Y. Q. Gu, X. L. Xu, W. B. Mori, C. Joshi, J. Wang, and W. Lu, Femtosecond probing of plasma wakefields and observation of the plasma wake reversal using a relativistic electron bunch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 064801 (2017).
  35. Y. Wan, O. Seemann, S. Tata, I. A. Andriyash, S. Smartsev, E. Kroupp, and V. Malka, Direct observation of relativistic broken plasma waves, Nat. Phys. 18, 1186 (2022).
  36. Y. Wan, S. Tata, O. Seemann, E. Y. Levine, S. Smartsev, E. Kroupp, and V. Malka, Femtosecond electron microscopy of relativistic electron bunches, Light: Sci. Appl. 12, 116 (2023).
  37. Y. Wan, S. Tata, O. Seemann, E. Y. Levine, E. Kroupp, and V. Malka, Real-time visualization of the laser-plasma wakefield dynamics, Sci. Adv. 10, eadj3595 (2024).
  38. Y. Glinec, J. Faure, A. Lifschitz, J. M. Vieira, R. A. Fonseca, L. O. Silva, and V. Malka, Direct observation of betatron oscillations in a laser-plasma electron accelerator, Europhys. Lett. 81, 64001 (2008).
  39. A. Popp, J. Vieira, J. Osterhoff, Z. Major, R. Hörlein, M. Fuchs, R. Weingartner, T. P. Rowlands-Rees, M. Marti, R. A. Fonseca, S. F. Martins, L. O. Silva, S. M. Hooker, F. Krausz, F. Grüner, and S. Karsch, All-optical steering of laser-wakefield-accelerated electron beams, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 215001 (2010).
  40. E. Kroupp, S. Tata, Y. Wan, D. Levy, S. Smartsev, E. Y. Levine, O. Seemann, M. Adelberg, R. Piliposian, T. Queller, E. Segre, K. Ta Phuoc, M. Kozlova, and V. Malka, Commissioning and first results from the new 2 × 100 TW laser at the WIS, Matter Radiat. Extremes 7, 044401 (2022).
  41. A. Savitzky and M. J. E. Golay, Smoothing and differentiation of data by simplified least squares procedures, Anal. Chem. 36, 1627 (1964).
  42. W. S. Cleveland, Robust locally weighted regression and smoothing scatterplots, J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 74, 829 (1979).
  43. M. Cappellari et al., The ATLAS3D project–XX. Mass-size and mass-σ distributions of early-type galaxies: Bulge fraction drives kinematics, mass-to-light ratio, molecular gas fraction and stellar initial mass function, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 432, 1862 (2013).
  44. P. Chen, J. M. Dawson, R. W. Huff, and T. Katsouleas, Acceleration of electrons by the interaction of a bunched electron beam with a plasma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 693 (1985).
  45. O. Seemann, Y. Wan, S. Tata, E. Kroupp, and V. Malka, Refractive plasma optics for relativistic laser beams, Nat. Commun. 14, 3296 (2023).
  46. Y. Ma, L. M. Chen, M. H. Li, Y. F. Li, J. G. Wang, M. Z. Tao, Y. J. Han, J. R. Zhao, K. Huang, W. C. Yan, D. Z. Li, Z. Y. Chen, J. L. Ma, Y. T. Li, Z. M. Sheng, and J. Zhang, Multiple quasi-monoenergetic electron beams from laser-wakefield acceleration with spatially structured laser pulse, Phys. Plasmas 22, 083102 (2015).
  47. M. Bussmann, H. Burau, T. E. Cowan, A. Debus, A. Huebl, G. Juckeland, T. Kluge, W. E. Nagel, R. Pausch, F. Schmitt, U. Schramm, J. Schuchart, and R. Widera, Radiative signatures of the relativistic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, in Proceedings of the International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, SC '13 (ACM, New York, 2013), pp. 5:1–5:12
  48. ANSYS, Fluent release 19.3.0, CFD software, 2019.
  49. C. Huang, W. Lu, M. Zhou, C. E. Clayton, C. Joshi, W. B. Mori, P. Muggli, S. Deng, E. Oz, T. Katsouleas, M. J. Hogan, I. Blumenfeld, F. J. Decker, R. Ischebeck, R. H. Iverson, N. A. Kirby, and D. Walz, Hosing instability in the blow-out regime for plasma-wakefield acceleration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 255001 (2007).
  50. M. Kozlova, I. Andriyash, J. Gautier, S. Sebban, S. Smartsev, N. Jourdain, U. Chaulagain, Y. Azamoum, A. Tafzi, J.-P. Goddet, K. Oubrerie, C. Thaury, A. Rousse, and K. Ta Phuoc, Hard x rays from laser-wakefield accelerators in density tailored plasmas, Phys. Rev. X 10, 011061 (2020).
  51. J. Wenz, A. Döpp, K. Khrennikov, S. Schindler, M. F. Gilljohann, H. Ding, J. Götzfried, A. Buck, J. Xu, M. Heigoldt, W. Helml, L. Veisz, and S. Karsch, Dual-energy electron beams from a compact laser-driven accelerator, Nat. Photon. 13, 263 (2019).
  52. A. Liberman, R. Lahaye, S. Smartsev, S. Tata, S. Benracassa, A. Golovanov, E. Y. Levine, C. Thaury, and V. Malka, Use of spatiotemporal couplings and an axiparabola to control the velocity of peak intensity, Opt. Lett. 49, 814 (2024).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012041– Published 25 February, 2025
  • Received 21 May 2024
  • Accepted 12 December 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