Abstract
A femtosecond pump-probe experiment based on forward, collective Thomson scattering for characterization of the amplitude, growth and decay rate of a self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator (SM-LWFA) is demonstrated. By measuring Thomson scattering from the probe pulse as a function of the delay between the pump and probe, the temporal envelope of the wakefield oscillations is recorded. The measured exponential rise time of the wakefield is in agreement with that expected from the growth of the forward Raman scattering (FRS) instability. Since the total energy in the plasma wave, the measured exponential decay rate of the wakefield is consistent with nonlinear Landau damping of trapped electrons or beam loading of the plasma wave.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 313 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | Conference Proceedings - Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Annual Meeting-LEOS |
| Volume | 11 |
| State | Published - 1997 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | Proceedings of the 1997 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, CLEO - Baltimore, MD, USA Duration: May 18 1997 → May 23 1997 |