0.56 GeV laser electron acceleration in ablative-capillary-discharge plasma channel

Kameshima, Takashi; Hong, W.*; Sugiyama, Kiyohiro*; Wen, X.*; Wu, Y.*; Tang, C.*; Zhu, Q.*; Gu, Y.*; Zhang, B.*; Peng, H. S.*; Kurokawa, Shinichi*; Chen, L.-M.; Tajima, Toshiki; Kumita, Tetsuro*; Nakajima, Kazuhisa*

A high-quality electron beam with a central energy of 0.56 GeV, an energy spread of 1.2 % rms, and a divergence of 0.59 mrad rms was produced by means of a 4cm ablative-capillary-discharge plasma channel driven by a 3.8 J 27 fs laser pulse. This is the first demonstration of electron acceleration with an ablative capillary discharge where in the capillary is stably operated in vacuum with a simple system triggered by a laser pulse. This result of the generation of a high-quality beam provides the prospects to realize a practical accelerator based on laser-plasma acceleration.