Abstract

A major recent advance in the field of laser-plasma acceleration (LPA) has been demonstration of high-quality electron acceleration to multi-GeV energies at three institutions (U. Texas [1], GIST [2], LBNL [3]) using petawatt (PW) laser excitation of tenuous (n_e < 10¹⁸ cm⁻³) plasma. 1 PW pulses of ~30 fs duration achieve multi-GeV LPA with moderate pulse energy (~30 J) and repetition rates (~1 Hz) [2,3]. 1 PW pulses of ~150 fs duration, having 5× more energy (150 J), are restricted to single-shot experiments with current laser technology, but have the long-range potential to reach ~5× higher electron energy and to produce higher charge because of their 5× longer depletion length. In the first part of my talk, I will discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of long-pulse petawatt laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) in the context of recent results from U. Texas.

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