title: Shock assisted ionization injection in laser-plasma accelerators.
abstract: Ionization injection is a simple and efficient method to trap an electron beam in a laser plasma accelerator. Yet, because of a long injection length, this injection technique leads generally to the production of large energy spread electron beams. Here, we propose to use a shock front transition to localize the injection. Experimental results show that the energy spread can be reduced down to 10 MeV and that the beam energy can be tuned by varying the position of the shock. This simple technique leads to very stable and reliable injection even for modest laser energy. It should therefore become a unique tool for the development of laser-plasma accelerators.
authors.affiliation: LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thaury
authors.affiliation: LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau France.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Guillaume
authors.affiliation: LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lifschitz
authors.affiliation: LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau France.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ta Phuoc
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Lund University, P. O. Box 118, S-22100 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hansson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics ASCR, v.v.i. (FZU), ELI Beamlines project, Na Slovance 2, 18221 Prague, Czech Republic.|Czech Technical University in Prague, FNSPE, Brehova 7, 11519 Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grittani
authors.affiliation: LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gautier
authors.affiliation: LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau France.
authors.forename: J-P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Goddet
authors.affiliation: LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tafzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Lund University, P. O. Box 118, S-22100 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lundh
authors.affiliation: LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau France.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Malka