Work

High-brightness, symmetric electron bunch generation in a plasma wakefield accelerator via a radially-polarized plasma photocathode

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The plasma photocathode has previously been proposed as a source of ultrahigh-brightness electron bunches within plasma accelerators. Here, the scheme is extended by using a radially-polarized ionizing laser pulse to generate high-charge, high-brightness electron bunches with transverse emittance. Efficient start-to-end modeling of the scheme, from ionization and trapping until drive bunch depletion, enables a multiobjective Bayesian optimization routine to be performed to understand the performance of the radially-polarized plasma photocathode, quantify the stability of the scheme, and explore the fundamental relation between the witness bunch charge and its emittance. Comparison of plasma photocathodes driven by radially- and linearly-polarized laser pulses shows that the former yields higher-brightness electron bunches when operating in the optimally-loaded regime.

Source: Physical Review Accelerators and Beams

DOI: 10.1103/hqqg-7rcd

Authors: J. Chappell, E. Archer, R. Walczak, S. M. Hooker

Institutions: University of Oxford, John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science

Language: English

Topic: Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Science and Technology Facilities Council

Awards: A proposal for the programme of the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science 2021-2025, All-Optical Plasma Channels and Electron Injection with Spatio-temporal Control, G4955927335, DTP 2018-19 University of Oxford