"Multi-GeV Electron Acceleration in Fully Optically Formed Plasma Waveguides"
by Jaron Shrock

Advisor:  Prof. Howard Milchberg

Abstract: Particle accelerators are a key tool in many areas of cutting edge research, but the ever-increasing demand for more and higher energy accelerators poses serious practical and economic challenges to conventional accelerator design. Laser wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) can generate accelerating fields 1000 times greater than traditional RF cavity designs and offer the possibility of producing ultra-short (10's fs), high energy (10 GeV+) electron beams using tabletop laser systems. To extract the maximum energy gain from these accelerators, an ultra-intense laser pulse needs to be confined for a long distance (10s of cm, 100s of Rayleigh lengths) in a plasma waveguide. In this talk, I will discuss our group's work developing two new techniques for generating meter-scale plasma waveguides and the first experimental demonstration of their use for multi-GeV electron acceleration in a fully-optically formed LWFA.

For additional information about the IREAP Graduate Student Seminars, contact Artur Perevalov.

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