@inproceedings{c3e285f316b946c883615b3c2609f4ef,
title = "Laser wakefield acceleration of high-quality electron beams to 300 MeV and efficient initiation of photonuclear reactions",
abstract = "By focusing 40-TW, 30-fs laser pulses to the intensity of 1019 W/cm2 onto a supersonic He gas jet, we generated quasi-monoenergetic electron beams for plasma density in the narrow range of 1.5≤ ne ≤3×1019 cm3. We show that the energy, charge, divergence and pointing stability of the beam vary sensitively with n e within this range. The observed variations can be explained physically by the interplay among pump depletion and dephasing between accelerated electrons and plasma wave. An optimized quasi-monoenergetic beam of over 300 MeV and 10 mrad angular divergence is demonstrated at a plasma density of ne∼1.5×1019 cm3. The quasi-monoenergeic electron beams with energy of 100-150 MeV and charge of 0.5 nC have been used to perform γ-nuclear photofission of natural uranium targets. Through bremsstrahlung emission, such electron beams are well suited for the efficient generation of high energy (tens of MeV) γ-rays necessary to induce photofission reactions. Quantitative γ-ray spectroscopy of the irradiated U sample shows that more than ∼105 photonuclear reactions have been produced per Joule of laser energy, which is 10 to 50 times higher than in a previously reported experiments.",
keywords = "Acceleration, Electron, Laser, Relativistic plasmas",
author = "Reed, {S. A.} and N. Naumova and Vane, {C. R.} and Beene, {J. R.} and Bulanov, {S. S.} and V. Chvykov and B. Hou and G. Kalintchenko and T. Matsuoka and P. Rousseau and Schultz, {D. R.} and Stracener, {D. W.} and V. Yanovsky and A. Maksimchuk",
year = "2006",
doi = "10.1063/1.2409214",
language = "English",
isbn = "0735403783",
series = "AIP Conference Proceedings",
pages = "771--776",
booktitle = "ADVANCED ACCELERATOR CONCEPTS",
note = "ADVANCED ACCELERATOR CONCEPTS: 12th Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop ; Conference date: 10-07-2006 Through 15-07-2006",
}