title: Enhancement of electron energy to the multi-GeV regime by a dual-stage laser-wakefield accelerator pumped by petawatt laser pulses.
abstract: Laser-wakefield acceleration offers the promise of a compact electron accelerator for generating a multi-GeV electron beam using the huge field gradient induced by an intense laser pulse, compared to conventional rf accelerators. However, the energy and quality of the electron beam from the laser-wakefield accelerator have been limited by the power of the driving laser pulses and interaction properties in the target medium. Recent progress in laser technology has resulted in the realization of a petawatt (PW) femtosecond laser, which offers new capabilities for research on laser-wakefield acceleration. Here, we present a significant increase in laser-driven electron energy to the multi-GeV level by utilizing a 30-fs, 1-PW laser system. In particular, a dual-stage laser-wakefield acceleration scheme (injector and accelerator scheme) was applied to boost electron energies to over 3 GeV with a single PW laser pulse. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations corroborate the multi-GeV electron generation from the dual-stage laser-wakefield accelerator driven by PW laser pulses.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Photonics Research Institute, GIST, Gwangju 500-712, Korea and Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 500-712, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyung Taek
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ki Hong
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Pae
authors.forename: Hyuk Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.forename: I Jong
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Tae Jun
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Jae Hee
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Seong Ku
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Tae Moon
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Jongmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee