High-quality 5 GeV electron bunches with resonant multi-pulse ionization injection

P. Tomassini, D. Terzani, F. Baffigi, F. Brandi, L. Fulgentini, P. Koester, L. Labate, D. Palla and L. A. Gizzi

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 62 (2020) 014010

Abstract

The production of high-quality electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration relies on the possibility of injecting ultra-low emittance bunches in the plasma wave. A new bunch injection scheme (resonant multi-pulse ionization, ReMPI) has been conceived and studied, in which electrons extracted by ionization are trapped by a large-amplitude plasma wave driven by a train of resonant ultrashort pulses. Such a train of pulses can be obtained in a very efficient, compact and stable way, by phase manipulation in the laser front-end. The ReMPI injection scheme relies on currently available laser technology and is being considered for the implementation of future compact x-ray free electron laser schemes. Simulations show that high-quality electron bunches with an energy of up to 5 GeV and a peak current exceeding 2 kA, with normalized emittance of below 0.1 mm × mrad and a slice energy spread of below 0.1%, can be obtained with a single stage.