Optical shaping of plasma cavity for controlled laser wakefield acceleration

Abstract

Laser wakefield accelerators rely on relativistically moving micron-sized plasma cavities for self-injection, acceleration, and focusing of electrons. Here, we demonstrate transverse shaping of the plasma cavity to produce controlled sub-GeV electron beams, adopting laser pulses with an axially rotatable ellipse-shaped focal spot. We demonstrate the control capability on self-injection, charge and transverse shape of the electron beams produced by rotating the focal spot. We observed that the effect of the elliptical focal spot was imprinted in the profiles of the electron beams and the electron energy increased, as compared to the case of a circular focal spot. We performed 3D PIC simulations which reproduced the experimental results and also revealed dynamics of a new asymmetric self-injection process. This simple scheme offers a novel control method on laser wakefield acceleration to produce tailored electron beams and x-rays for various applications.