Simultaneous measurements on the electron and X-ray spectra from laser-irradiated near-critical-density double-layer targets at relativistic intensity

2020/10/12 by Jianbo Liu, Liu, Jianbo, Pengjie Wang +25
Physics and Astronomy · #Accelerator Physics (physics.acc-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) #physics.acc-ph #physics.plasm-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2010.05702

arxiv created 2020/10/12 · arxiv updated 2020/10/13

Abstract

We report the experimental results of simultaneous measurements on the electron and X-ray spectra from near-critical-density (NCD) double-layer targets irradiated by relativistic femtosecond pulses at the intensity of 5E19 W/cm². The dependence of the electron and X-ray spectra on the density and thickness of the NCD layer was studied. For the optimal targets, electrons with temperature of 5.5 MeV and X-rays with critical energy of 5 keV were obtained. 2D particle-in-cell simulations based on the experimental parameters confirm the electrons are accelerated in the plasma channel through direct laser acceleration, resulting in temperature significantly higher than the pondermotive temperature. Bright X-rays are generated from betatron emission and Thomson backscattering before the electrons leave the double-layer targets.

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