Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We demonstrate a laser-wakefield accelerator driven by a high-repetition-rate optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) laser, producing stable, quasi-monoenergetic electron beams at 100 Hz. Using 70 mJ, 8.1 fs laser pulses, we obtain 47 MeV electron beams with 15 pC charge and an intrinsic energy spread below 10%. Measurements over 10,000 consecutive shots show rms fluctuations of only 1.4% in peak energy and 12% in charge, together with low pointing jitter. Principal-component analysis reveals that the beam fluctuations are described by five physically interpretable modes, dominated by slow variations below 1 Hz. Particle-in-cell simulations reproduce the measured spectrum and show that nonlinear self-focusing localizes ionization injection, resulting in the observed narrow energy distribution. The demonstrated combination of electron energy, charge, beam quality, and stability represents a significant step toward high-average-power laser-plasma accelerators.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, École Polytechnique, Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, Lund University, Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie, Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, ELI-HU Research and Development Non-Profit, École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées, Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214121824