Physics of nanocoulomb-class electron beams in laser-plasma wakefields

Understand

Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) and its particle-driven counterpart, plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA), are commonly treated as separate, though related branches of high-gradient plasma-based acceleration.

• However, novel proposed schemes are increasingly residing at the interface of both concepts where the understanding of their interplay becomes crucial.
• Here, we report on experiments covering a wide range of parameters by using nanocoulomb-class quasi-monoenergetic electron beams from LWFA with a 100-TW-class laser.
• Based on a controlled electron injection, these beams reach record-level performance in terms of laser-to-beam energy transfer efficiency (up to 10%), spectral charge density (regularly exceeding 10 pC/MeV) and divergence (1 mrad full width at half maximum divergence).